The National Confederation of Pensioners’ Associations (NCPA), representing over one million senior citizens and lifelong higher pension aspirants under the Employees’ Pension Scheme (EPS-95), appealed to the Union Government to intervene immediately to halt systemic administrative overreach by the Employees’ Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO).The issue before the nation is not merely the technical interpretation of pension rules. It directly concerns the credibility of parliament’s social welfare legislation, the authority of Supreme Court judgments, the constitutional guarantee of equality and the dignity of millions of senior citizens who contributed to India’s economic growth for decades. A welfare state cannot permit beneficial legislation to be defeated by procedural technicalities and administrative resistance.Baseline preamble: The statutory promise of EPS-95Introduced on November 16, 1995, under Section 6A of the EPF & MP Act, 1952, the Employees’ Pension Scheme was designed as a pooled defined contribution and defined benefit framework. Funded entirely by diverting 8.33% of employer Provident Fund contributions, it was initially capped against statutory wage ceilings (Rs 5,000, Rs 6,500 and later Rs 15,000).Recognising that these rigid ceilings restricted social security, the Ministry of Labour, vide Notification No. 134 on dated February 28, 1996, enabled employers to contribute 8.33% on actual full salaries exceeding statutory ceilings through a “joint option”. However, through restrictive circulars and administrative hurdles, the EPFO effectively reduced this statutory Pension on Higher Wages (PoHW) to a paper right, forcing retirees into decades of avoidable litigation.Also read: Pension After 36 Months: Why the New EPFO Rules Have Triggered AngerDespite final, binding mandates by the Supreme Court in R.C. Gupta (2016) and Sunil Kumar B. (2022), the EPFO’s internal circular dated January 18, 2025 has created new rejection hurdles. Field EPFO offices are denying higher pensions to retirees of exempted establishments on the technicality that their internal PF Trust Rules mirrored historical statutory wage ceilings (Rs 6,500/Rs. 15,000).This argument ignores basic industrial jurisprudence: internal trust bylaws merely complied with prevailing government ceilings at the material time and cannot override parent statutes or Apex Court judgments.Key grievancesUnconstitutional “class within a class”: In Sunil Kumar B., the Supreme Court declared members of exempted and un-exempted establishments to be one single class. The EPFO’s selective rejection of exempted establishment retirees creates an artificial, discriminatory schism that violates Article 14 of the Constitution of India.Violation of natural justice: Rejections are being issued automatically without mandatory show-cause notices or the one-month rectification window required by EPFO’s own guidelines (dated April 23, 2023).Defiance of National Litigation Policy: Operating as an adversarial litigant rather than a responsible litigant, the EPFO continues to drag aging retirees into mechanical legal battles across high courts nationwide, ignoring government directives for effective litigation management.The ‘financial deficit’ myth: The PoHW framework is completely self-funded. Pensioners are returning differential contributions with compounded interest, placing zero burden on taxpayers or the Consolidated Fund of India while the EPFO manages a pension corpus exceeding Rs 11 lakh crore.A call for constitutional dignity and justiceThese retirees are not seeking a handout or state bounty. They are asking for their own deferred wages. At 60, 65 or 70 years of age, senior citizens are spending their twilight years and meager savings in courtrooms fighting for social security already granted to them by the highest court of the land.The EPFO’s strategy of endless procedural hurdles and appeals results in attrition by mortality – where senior citizens pass away before ever receiving the justice and pension security they rightfully earned.Demands for immediate government interventionThe NCPA implores the Union government and the Ministry of Labour and Employment to intervene immediately to:Direct the immediate withdrawal of the circular dated January 18, 2025 and halt all post-judgment rejection campaigns targeting Exempted Establishments.Enforce uniform implementation of Supreme Court mandates across all exempted and un-exempted establishments without artificial or structural discrimination based on internal trust bylaws.Align EPFO operations with the government’s vision of ‘ease of living’, upholding the sanctity of social welfare legislation and restoring the fundamental rights and human dignity of India’s senior citizens.B.N. Agrawal is president, National Confederation of Pensioners’ Associations (NCPA) and ex-Chief General Manager, SAIL–Bhilai Steel Plant.