Higher Pension in Private Jobs: SC Upholds Kerala HC Judgment

Image used for representational purpose.

(Photo: AP)

The Supreme Court on Monday, 1 April, dismissed a special leave petition filed against the Kerala High Court judgment making way for higher pension for people employed in the private sector.

The HC had asked Employees Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO) to give pension to the retiring employees on the basis of their full salary instead of capping maximum pensionable salary to Rs 15,000 per month.

The SC in its ruling said, "We find no merit in the special leave petition."

However a report in The Times of India points out that after this ruling, the pension will increase as the extra contribution will go to EPS but the provident fund corpus will be reduced.

The Employee Pension Scheme was introduced in 1995 under which the employer was contributing 8.33% of the employee's salary in a pension scheme. But the contribution was capped at 8.33 percent of Rs 6,500. This was amended in September 2014 to increase the contribution to 8.33% of Rs 15,000.

This amendment was set aside by the Kerala HC reinstating the old system of calculating pensionable salary as the average of the last one year's monthly salary.

(With inputs from The Times of India)