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Seek quashing of amendment, circular
Retirees and employees who are members of the Employees Pension Scheme, 1995 have filed a writ petition in the Supreme Court against the Centre and the Employees Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO), which administers the scheme. They are demanding the quashing of a 2014 amendment and 2017 circular which they say has excluded thousands from receiving their rightful benefits under EPS 95. The petition, which was filed in the apex court last month, has four individual petitioners and two organisational petitioners. The National Confederation of Retirees represents 42,555 retirees from the private and public sector who are all members of EPS 95, while the National Confederation of Officers Association represents 19,118 people currently working in central public sector organisations, most of whom are members of EPS 95. EPFO’s August 28, 2014 amendment had raised the wage ceiling amount for the scheme to Rs. 15,000 and amended the option for contribution on higher salary for existing employees, introducing a cut-off date of September 1, 2014. In an October 2016 order, the Supreme Court had struck down the cut-off date clause in the amendment. Two months later, the Central Board of Trustees of the EPFO decided to comply with the order and allow members to get the benefit of pension on a higher salary. EPS95 members from unexempted companies who applied to increase their pension contribution under the scheme after the top court’s order of 2016 were told by the EPFO that, since they had not applied within the cut-off date, they were ‘deemed’ to have opted out even though they had remitted funds on full salary to their PF accounts.
Source : https://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp-national/eps-95-members-file-petition-in-sc/article25185592.ece
