Employees’ Pension Scheme: Centre plea in opposition to Kerala HC’s 2018 order in SC as we speak

The Supreme Court will take up Monday the Centre’s plea difficult the 2018 judgment of Kerala High Court that put aside amendments made to Employees’ Pension Scheme (EPS), 1995, fixing the utmost pensionable wage at Rs 15,000 per thirty days.
A bench headed by Justice U U Lalit can even think about on Monday a evaluation petition by Employees’ Provident Fund Organisation in opposition to the Supreme Court order rejecting its enchantment in opposition to the 2018 excessive courtroom verdict.
The Centre’s enchantment stated “with the striking down of the amendments, the very survival of EPS is in jeopardy” and {that a} research of the impression of the impugned judgment “shows that as against the total corpus of EPS of approximately Rs 3.77 lakh crores, the total liability in terms of the impugned judgement stands at more than Rs 10 lakh crores…”
The “reason for this precarious position is that the judgement fails to consider the rationale behind the amendments” carried out in Section 11 of the EPS.
Prior to the modification, the utmost pensionable wage was Rs 6,500. However, it permitted the pensionable wage to be based mostly on a better wage quantity on the mutual possibility of the employer and worker. The 2014 modification elevated the utmost pensionable wage to Rs 15,000 per thirty days. It additionally launched circumstances within the choice to contribute a better quantity.

The authorities stated “employees in the lower economic strata…earning upto Rs 15,000 per month benefited from 2014 amendments because their entire salary upto the limit of Rs 15000… constituted pensionable salary without any requirement of the consent of the employer”.
Members with wage above Rs 15,000 challenged it as violative of Article 14, the Centre stated, including the “challenge was incorrect because” the provisions “expressly grants the power to Central government to regulate the membership to EPS”.