Karnataka HC strikes down extension of PF benefits to international workers

The Karnataka High Court has struck down provisions in the employees provident fund (EPF) scheme and employee pension scheme (EPS), extending the EPF and EPS benefits to foreign workers working in India, calling the provisions violative under Article 14 of the Constitution, and arbitrary.

Justice KS Hemalekha, in her ruling on April 25, while allowing a batch of writ petitions from individual companies, said that while the Employees Provident Funds and Miscellaneous Provisions Act (EPF & MP Act) empowers the Union Government to modify the schemes, the power has to be exercised only to meet the objectives of the law.



The Court passed the ruling on a batch of petitions (Stone Hill Education Foundation vs The Union of India) challenging para 83 of the EPF Scheme and para 43A of the EP Scheme that were extended to international workers in 2008.

The petitions filed by both employers and employees said the international workers in India work only for a limited period and requiring them to make PF contributions would cause irreparable injury. The petitioners also argued that the foreign workers were a separate class.

"With the HC striking down the above paras as unconstitutional, all orders passed under them are unenforceable," Karnataka Employers' Association President BC Prabhakar said.