Denied higher pension, retirees' association pleads CJI to intervene
Powergrid Retired Employees' Association
related to EPS-95.
The committee claimed the Supreme Court verdict has denied rightful pension benefits to senior citizens who retired before September 1, 2014.
In a letter dated May 20, the committee's national general secretary Prakash Pathak and national legal advisor Dada Tukaram Zode have demanded "sympathetic intervention" from the CJI, citing "arbitrary and unjust treatment" by a Supreme Court bench, which, they alleged, failed to address core grievance regarding misinterpretation of earlier apex court orders.
"For the first time since 2004, we are not getting justice from the top court," said Pathak, referring to a decades long legal struggle to secure higher pension based on actual salary. "Till 2016, 10 special leave petitions (SLPs) filed by Employees' Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO) were rejected. But since 2019, the trend has reversed against the pensioners."
The letter points to Kerala high court's 2018 verdict, which held EPFO's pension scheme amendments illegal — a decision later upheld by the apex court in April 2019.
However, the committee alleged that subsequent review petitions and SLPs filed by the EPFO and the Centre were processed in an "inconsistent" manner, with fresh benches taking up matters already decided by three-judge benches.
The association particularly flagged a paragraph — 44(v) — in the November 4, 2022 judgment by the top court. "The EPFO later misused this paragraph to issue circulars dated December 29, 2022, and January 25, 2023, which effectively excluded pre-2014 retirees from the benefit of higher pension, triggering around 77 subsequent legal applications — all of which were dismissed," said the association.
"This pension scheme is meant for social welfare and security in the old age of workers. The court should protect such right to life," the letter reads. It also claims that dismissal of Powergrid staffers plea was done "without considering facts and merits," causing distress to elderly pensioners across the country.
The committee has also enclosed a copy of an earlier letter addressed to the apex court, expressing dismay over the verdict. Seeking urgent remedial action, the committee has requested the CJI to examine the case for fairness and consider an appropriate inquiry "in the interest of justice to pensioners across the country."
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