Kochi: The Kerala high court has held that employees who contributed to the Employees’ Provident Fund (EPF) on actual salaries exceeding the statutory wage ceiling and retired before Sept 1, 2014, are entitled to higher pension under the pre-amendment Employees’ Pension Scheme even if they had not exercised the option for higher pension before retirement.Justice P Gopinath, allowing a batch of over 60 petitions, rejected the Employees’ Provident Fund Organisation’s (EPFO) stand denying benefits to these pensioners. The court held that the Supreme Court’s 2016 judgment in R C Gupta vs regional provident fund commissioner, which recognised employees’ entitlement to higher pension based on actual salaries and ruled that there is no strict cut-off date for exercising the option, continues to apply to this category of retirees.The petitioners contended that although they had contributed to the PF on actual salaries above the statutory wage ceiling, they were denied higher pension solely because they had not exercised the higher pension option before retirement. The EPFO argued that employees who retired without exercising the joint option were ineligible and relied on the Supreme Court’s decision in EPFO vs Sunil Kumar B (2022), contending that it excluded pre-Sept 1, 2014 retirees who had not exercised the option.Rejecting the contention, the court observed that until the R C Gupta judgment in Oct 2016, the EPFO itself had maintained that the option had to be exercised within a strict time limit, effectively preventing employees from exercising it later. The employees cannot be blamed for not exercising the option because EPFO itself had insisted there was a time limit and would not permit such options earlier. The court held that the judgment in Sunil Kumar B case did not overrule R C Gupta and merely barred pre-Sept 1, 2014 retirees from claiming benefits under the amended Employees’ Pension Scheme, 2014, without affecting their crystallised rights under the pre-amendment scheme.The court quashed all orders denying higher pension and recovery notices seeking the return of excess pension already paid. It directed the EPFO to extend the benefits to all eligible petitioners within four months, clarifying that the ruling is confined to employees who retired before Sept 1, 2014, after contributing to the PF on actual wages exceeding the statutory wage ceiling.
