Hyderabad High Court upholds claim for higher pension-Courtesy The Hindu vijaywada 7.10.18

Relief for former APSRTC employees

The Hyderabad High Court has ruled in favour of four retired employees of A.P. State Road Transport Corporation (APSRTC) in an Employees Pension Scheme (EPS) case, upholding their claim for higher pension.

The cases were filed in 2012 and 2013 by the employees who were denied the higher pension option by the EPFO, despite a higher contribution from their PF.

The petitioners agreed to contribute a higher amount of pension than the minimum prescribed amount at the rate of 8.33 % to the EPFO.

However, the EPFO rejected their plea holding that prior consent of the competent authority was not obtained.

The petitioners argued that since ‘higher’ amounts were recovered from salaries, they were entitled to ‘higher pension’ and cited the Supreme Court order in R.C. Gupta case of 2017.

The court, in that case, held that an employee could contribute higher amount at any point of time. It had ruled that refusal by EPFO to pay higher pension to the employee on the ground that the cut-off date option was not exercised was not valid.

In the APSRTC employees’ case, the HC directed the EPFO to work out the amount of pension payable to the petitioners.