EPS: The biggest court of the country has given a big relief to the employees. The Supreme Court has upheld the validity of the Employees’ Pension (Amendment) Scheme for the year 2014 on Friday, November 4.
However, the court has struck down the limit of Rs 15,000 monthly salary for joining the pension fund. Due to this, the workers whose monthly salary is more than Rs 15 thousand have got a big relief. The workers who have not yet joined the Employees’ Pension Scheme (EPS) scheme have been given an additional time of six months so that they can join it.
For this reason the court gave additional time of six months
A bench of Supreme Court Chief Justice UU Lalit, Justice Aniruddha Bose and Justice Sudhanshu Dhulia said that employees who have not exercised the option to join the pension scheme will have to do so within six months. According to the bench, the workers who could not join the scheme till the last date should be given one more chance as there was no clarity in the judgments given by the High Courts of Kerala, Rajasthan and Delhi in this matter.
The condition of additional contribution on the salary of more than 15 thousand rejected
Employees of most companies are covered under the Employees’ Provident Funds and Miscellaneous Provisions Act, 1952. Under this, the workers contribute 12 per cent of their salary to the pension account and the company also contributes the same amount. Earlier this contribution was fixed according to the pensionable salary of Rs 6500, which was increased to Rs 15 thousand monthly through amendment in 2014.
However, if you contribute even if you have a salary of more than Rs 15,000, you would have to make an additional contribution of 1.16 per cent. Now the court has rejected this additional contribution. However, the court said that this part of the judgment will not be implemented for six months so that the rights can collect funds. The Employees’ Provident Fund Organization and the Center had challenged the decisions of the High Courts of Kerala, Rajasthan and Delhi that struck down the 2014 scheme.
