Supreme Court refers pleas on EPFO scheme to larger bench

On Tuesday, a division bench of justices UU Lalit and Ajay Rastogi referred the issue to a larger bench after the Employees’ Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO) argued that a 2018 judgment of the SC in RC Gupta case that had examined the issue required reconsideration.

A three-judge bench of the Supreme Court will now determine the validity of the amendments to the Employee Pension Scheme in 2014, by which a cut-off date was fixed for employees to contribute to pension under an enhanced limit on maximum pensionable salary of ₹15,000 fixed under the Scheme.

The court directed the matter to be placed before the CJI.

On Tuesday, a division bench of justices UU Lalit and Ajay Rastogi referred the issue to a larger bench after the Employees’ Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO) argued that a 2018 judgment of the SC in RC Gupta case that had examined the issue required reconsideration.

As a division bench could not consider the correctness of another two-judge bench decision, justice Lalit said: “The principal questions for consideration are whether there would be a cut-off date under paragraph 11(3) of the Employees’ Pension Scheme and whether the decision in RC Gupta would be the governing principle on the basis of which all these matters must be disposed of.”

“The logical course would be to refer all these matters to a Bench of at least three Judges...”