EPF Wage Ceiling Limit Revision Requires Active Consideration : Supreme Court Asks Union To Decide In 4 Months

Dealing with a public interest litigation, the Supreme Court recently allowed a litigant to approach the Union government with a representation for revision of wage ceiling limit under the Employees Provident Fund scheme.A bench of Justices JK Maheshwari and Atul S Chadurkar heard the matter and ordered that the respondent-government(s) take a decision within 4 months. The petitioner can file the representation within 2 weeks, whereafter the government(s) shall take a call in the stipulated time."we find that issue requires active consideration by the Union of India to address the grievance as posed in the grounds mentioned in this petition. However, at this stage, we are not entertaining the petition and relegate the petitioner to file a representation before the appropriate authority within a period of two weeks and place the order of this Court passed today before the said authority. On receiving such representation, the authority shall place the matter at appropriate level and take a decision in accordance with law within a period of four months."It was the petitioner's case that the EPFO had not revised the wage ceiling since the last 11 years, even though the minimum wage notified by the Central and State governments was more than its wage ceiling limit of Rs.15000 per month. This led to a majority of workers being deprived of the welfare benefits under the EPFO scheme."The EPFO, which administers social security schemes for employees, currently excludes from coverage those whose wages exceed Rs.15000 per month. However, the wage ceiling has historically been revised inconsistently, sometimes after 13-14 years, without any fixed periodicity or linkage to relevant economic indicators such as inflation, minimum wages, per capita income or consumer price index," the petition stated.It further highlighted that EPFO's 'Sub-Committee on Enhancing Coverage and Managing Related Litigation' gave a report in 2022 recommending reduction in coverage threshold, increase in wage ceiling, and enrolling of all employees as EPF members upto the wage ceiling. The recommendations were approved by the Central Board (EPF) in July 2022, but remain pending for consideration by the Central government.The petitioner also claimed that an analysis of the revisions of wage ceiling limits over the years would show that the system shifted from an inclusive framework during initially 30 years to an exclusionary one in the past 3 decades. He further stated that the revisions were not consistent with any of the following metrics:a. Minimum Pay of Central Government Employeesb. Income Tax Exemption Limitc. Annual Growth Rate in Per Capita Net National Incomed. Minimum Wagese. Annual Inflation Rates.Appearance: Advocates Pranav Sachdeva and Neha Rathi (for petitioner)Case Title: NAVEEN PRAKASH NAUTIYAL Versus UNION OF INDIA AND ANR., W.P.(C) No. 1134/2025Click here to read the order

EPF Wage Ceiling Limit Revision Requires Active Consideration : Supreme Court Asks Union To Decide In 4 Months

Debby Jain

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