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IN a significant ruling, the Supreme Court upheld the Employees’ Pension (Amendment) Scheme, 2014, but also read down certain provisions concerning the current subscribers to the scheme.
A three-judge bench of Chief Justice of India UU Lalit and Justices Aniruddha Bose and Sudhanshu Dhulia said the amendments to the scheme shall apply to employees of exempted establishments as they do for the employees of regular establishments.
There are about 1,300 companies in the list of the EPFO’s (Employees’ Provident Fund Organisation) exempted establishments.
In a nutshell, Supreme Court ruling gives EPFO members, who have availed of the EPS, another opportunity over the next four months to opt and contribute up to 8.33 per cent of their actual salaries — as against 8.33 per cent of the pensionable salary capped at Rs 15,000 a month – towards pension.
The EPS amendment of August 22, 2014, had raised the pensionable salary cap to Rs 15,000 a month from Rs 6,500 a month, and allowed only existing members (as on September 1, 2014) along with their employers exercise the option to contribute 8.33 per cent on their actual salaries (if it exceeded the cap) towards the pension fund.
This was extendable by another six months at the discretion of the Regional Provident Fund Commissioner. It, however, excluded new members who earned above ?15,000 and joined after September 2014 from the scheme completely.
The amendment also required such members (with actual salaries over Rs 15,000 a month) to contribute an additional 1.16 per cent of their salary exceeding Rs 15,000 a month towards the pension fund.
Those existing members who did not exercise the option within the stipulated period or extended period, were deemed to have not opted for contribution over the pensionable salary cap and the extra contributions already made to the pension fund were to be diverted to the Provident Fund account of the member, along with interest.
Sources said only a negligible percentage of EPFO members – with salaries higher than the Rs 15,000 a month pensionable salary cap – had opted for contributions based on their actual salaries.
Trade unions were resisting the government argument that workers at all levels should have more liquidity. The SC, through its ruling, has let the workers decide whether they should opt for higher provident fund or choose higher pension payouts.
The Supreme Court decision came on appeals filed by the EPFO against the judgements of the Kerala, Rajasthan and Delhi High Courts, which had quashed the Employees’ Pension (Amendment) Scheme, 2014.
Exercising original powers under Article 142, the Supreme Court extended the time to opt for the new scheme, by four months. “There was uncertainty regarding the validity of the post amendment scheme, which was quashed by the High Courts.
Thus, all employees who did not exercise the option but are entitled to do so, but could not due to interpretation of the cut-off date, ought to be given certain adjustments.
Under the pre-amendment scheme, the pensionable salary was computed as the average of the salary drawn during the 12 months prior to exit from membership of the Pension Fund. The amendments raised this to an average of 60 months prior to exit from the membership of the Pension Fund.
Express Network
Some relief on inflation front as global food prices ease (Page no. 9)
(GS Paper 3, Food Security)
International food prices have eased for the seventh straight month in October. This comes even as the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) is set to submit a report to the Centre on its “failure” to keep annual retail inflation below 6 per cent for three consecutive quarters and the “remedial actions” proposed to be taken to achieve the target.
The UN Food and Agricultural Organisation’s Food Price Index (FPI) averaged 135.9 points in October, marginally lower compared to the previous month’s 136 points.
This marks the seventh successive month of decline in the index, which is a weighted average of world prices of a basket of food commodities over a base period value, taken at 100 for 2014-16.
The FPI scaled an all-time high of 159.7 points in March, the month that followed Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. The latest index value of 135.9 is the lowest since the 135.6 level of January, which was before the war. On a cumulative basis, the benchmark gauge has fallen by 14.9 per cent between March and October.
The dip in the overall FPI in October has been despite the cereals sub-index posting an increase from 147.9 to 152.3 points. Global wheat and maize prices rose month-on-month largely on the back on uncertainties relating to exports from Ukraine.
Russia had, last weekend, suspended its participation in the UN and Turkey-brokered Black Sea Grain Initiative that allows safe passage of Ukrainian agri-commodities through designated ports.
About 10 million tonnes of grain, oilseeds and other food products were shipped out by Ukraine during August-October under the deal, which unblocked the country’s ports on the Black Sea.
Russia, agreed to rejoin the initiative after briefly pulling out — a move that led to a spike in global grain prices earlier this week.
The global food price index in October is at almost the same level as it was in January, a month before Russia attacked Ukraine. But global worries on inflation are likely to weigh on central banks, which continue with strong monetary action of policy rate hikes.
All other major sub-indices constituting the FPI registered drops in October over September. The vegetable oils sub-index fell from 152.6 to 150.1 points; so did that of sugar (109.7 to 109 points), dairy (142.6 to 140.1) and meat (120.1 to 118.4).
The vegetable oils and sugar sub-indices for October were, in fact, 18.8 per cent and 8.5 per cent down from their respective year-ago levels.
The continued easing of international food prices is some relief for the RBI’s monetary policy committee. This is especially so, given that food items have a 45.86 per cent weight in the official consumer price index.
While overall year-on-year retail inflation in September, at 7.41 per cent, stood well above the “upper tolerance level” of 6 per cent mandated by the Narendra Modi government, food inflation was even higher, at 8.6 per cent.
Editorial Page
Return to crisis (Page no. 12)
(GS Paper 2, International Relations)
The murderous attempt on Imran Khan’s life has dramatically raised the stakes and altered the nature of challenge he has come to pose to the ruling dispensation in Pakistan.
Till now Pakistan has been figuring more often on sports pages in the Indian media than on the front page. That is bound to change as the headline news from Pakistan this November has the potential of constituting yet another turning point not just in that nation’s checkered history but for regional politics and security too.
Khan, former prime minister and chairman of the opposition political party, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), has been on a long march to Islamabad, challenging not just the legitimacy of the government of Prime Minister, but also hoping to create divisions within Pakistan’s armed forces leadership.
While Khan’s march, before Thursday’s attack, was expected to arrive on the outskirts of Islamabad within the next few days, another important November event to watch would be the scheduled retirement of Army Chief Qamar Javed Bajwa at the end of the month.
To the extent that Pakistan is embroiled in an economic crisis, implementing the International Monetary Fund’s fiscal and structural adjustment programme is vital.
These and many other questions are being posed and examined by analysts of Pakistan affairs in the region and around the world. What a pity that at a time like this the Indian media does not have a single correspondent posted in the country to report directly. While print media offers at least occasionally a professional view of developments in Pakistan, the electronic media has turned Pakistan reporting and analysis into a soap opera, a circus and just propaganda.
Not surprisingly, therefore, even as some Indian analysts were claiming that Pakistan would be moved up from the grey to the black list of the Financial Action Task Force (FATF), it was finally taken off even the grey list.
The US followed up this gesture with a resumption of defence supplies and western diplomats started wooing Pakistani politicians. Time was when some in the ruling dispensation in New Delhi would claim that India had succeeded in “isolating” Pakistan internationally. On the contrary, today Pakistan has reasonably good relations with the US, China, Turkey, Saudi Arabia, Iran, Britain and Russia.
In the past, the body of expertise in India on Pakistan, outside of the security and intelligence agencies, consisted of two well-informed groups — diplomats and journalists.
Many diplomats have distinguished themselves after retirement, writing informed commentary on that country. The authors of some of the best books published in recent times on China and Pakistan have been former diplomats, intelligence officials and senior defence staff.
Law is not enough (Page no. 12)
(GS Paper 3, Science and Technology)
In the past few days there has been much talk (and considerable apprehension) about the use of nuclear weapons as a result of the Ukraine conflict.
What is the law on the subject? Nearly 30 years ago the International Court of Justice was requested by the UN for an Advisory Opinion “as to whether the threat or use of Nuclear Weapons in any circumstance was permitted under International law”.
In other words, could the use of nuclear weapons be reconciled with the basic principles of humanitarian law? Representatives of 22 nation-states appeared before the ICJ and made written and oral submissions.
In the end, a majority of 12 out of 15 judges said “that humanitarian law has to be read subject to an exception viz. that it permitted a State to use Nuclear Weapons in self defence when its survival was at stake, even where such use would otherwise be a breach of humanitarian law.” Alarming, but true.
Only three judges disagreed — Judge Weeramantry of Sri Lanka, Judge Shahbuddin of Guyana and Judge Koroma of Sierra Leone.
All three were from the developing world. They said that the concept of the humanitarian laws of war was not a recent invention, nor the product of any one culture.
It was deep rooted in many ancient cultures — Buddhist, Hindu, Chinese, Christian, Islamic and traditional African. Each of these cultures had given expression to a variety of means that can be used for the purposes of fighting one’s enemy.
They also said that the problem under consideration was universal, and the world court being a universal court, its composition “should reflect the world’s principal cultural traditions”.
Of special relevance in connection with nuclear weapons (the three judges said) was the ancient South Asian tradition regarding the prohibition of the use of “hyper destructive weapons”, as they used to be called in ancient texts.
The celebrated Indian epics — the Ramayana and Mahabharatha — were actually referred to in their Opinions: The stories in these epics were regularly re–enacted through the length, and breadth of South and South East Asia as a part of the living cultural tradition of the entire region.
For instance, the Ramayana told the story of a war between Rama, prince of Ayodhya in Bharat, and Ravana, the ruler of Sri Lanka. In the course of this epic struggle — described in minute detail — a weapon of war became available to Rama’s half brother, Lakshmana, which could “destroy the entire race of the enemy, including those who could not bear arms”.
Rama warned Lakshmana that the weapon should not be used in the war because such destruction en masse was forbidden by the ancient laws of war, even though Ravana was fighting an unjust war with an unrighteous objective.
These laws of war were ancient even in Rama’s time. The judges also quoted from the Mahabharata to emphasise the embargo on the use of “hyper-destructive” weapons.
Equipped with the necessary array of principles and cultural traditions with which to respond, all three judges at the ICJ felt that international law could have contributed significantly towards rolling back the shadow of the nuclear age. But it was not to be.
Idea Page
A question of numbers (Page no. 13)
(GS Paper 1, Population and Associated Issues)
On November 15, the world population will cross eight billion — it crossed six billion in October 1999 and we added another two billion in two decades. Demographers at the UN predict that the planet will have 9.8 billion people in 2050 and 11.2 billion by 2100.
India will be the world’s most populous country by 2050 with its population crossing 1.65 billion. China will see a decline in that year and its population will reduce to 1.3 billion. India will peak in that decade and thereafter, the numbers will start to recede and settle at 1.1 billion by 2100.
For some demographers, population concerns are ill-founded. Rachel Snow of the UN World Population Fund, for example, says that the world population growth is slowing down with more than 50 countries registering a population decline.
Contrary to the UN’s projection of 11.2 billion people on the planet by 2100, Snow insists that it would reduce to 8.5 billion by then. “Eight billion people is potentially eight billion new ideas that will increase food production, very cool ways for people to learn on the internet.
Superabundance, a new book published by Cato Institute earlier this year, argues that population growth was actually a good thing. “On average, every additional human being created more value than he or she consumed.
This relationship between population growth and abundance is deeply counterintuitive, yet it is true,” authors Marian Tupi and Gale Pooley argue.
Not all agree with the “optimists”. Many rightly believe that more people means more mouths to feed, more exploitation of resources and more carbon emissions, which are detrimental to nature. Prime Minister Narendra Modi flagged this concern a couple of years ago.
Cautioning that population explosion will cause many problems to future generations, he lauded those who stop “to think before bringing a child to the world, whether they can do justice to the child, give them all that she or he wants”. Having “smaller families is also a form of patriotism,” he said.
Most people tend to agree with PM Modi’s observations. But demographics is a complex, and often contentious, subject. Incidentally, the developed West and China took a grim view of population growth in the last century and attempted population control. By the turn of this century, both countries witnessed low birth rates and consequently, a slowing down of population growth.
But at the same time, countries in the developing world, including in the Middle East and Africa, continue to register higher population growth rates. It is projected that by 2100, close to 40 per cent of the world population will be residing in Africa.
That is every second person in the world will be an African. Similarly, countries in the Muslim world are registering higher population growth rates – 1.5 per cent, compared to the rest at 0.7 per cent.
Explained Page
The harvest of polluted air (Page no. 15)
(GS Paper 3, Environment)
The haze and smoke over Delhi, which has become an annual event for about three weeks in October-November, has triggered a temporary ban on construction activities and the movement of trucks and diesel four-wheelers that do not comply with BS-VI norms.
The Supreme Court will hear a petition on agricultural stubble burning in the northern states, considered the prime reason for the extremely bad air quality in Delhi-NCR.
At this time of the year, the burning of agricultural waste in Punjab and Haryana is indeed the dominant reason for the smoke and haze over Delhi.
The particulate matter from the burning contributes 30-40% of the PM2.5 concentrations in Delhi’s air during this time. It is the single largest source of PM2.5 levels on most days during this period.
However, the weather plays a critical role as well — a 30-40% rise in pollutants at any other time of the year would not cause the same impact.
Agricultural waste burning in Punjab and Haryana happens in the months of May and June as well, although at a smaller scale. At that time, it accounts for about 15-20% of PM2.5 concentrations in Delhi’s air. But the air quality over the capital hardly ever becomes this bad.
The reason is the weather, or rather, heat. Hotter air rises higher above the surface, and takes the pollutants along with it. The polluting particles are lifted 2-3 km above the surface or even higher, before getting dispersed.
During October-November, however, the air is not that hot. The pollutants are trapped and tend to get concentrated at lower levels of the atmosphere, resulting in the smoke and haze situation that is being witnessed now.
This waste is the remains of the paddy crop after it has been harvested. This kind of burning is not specific only to Punjab or Haryana. However, the scale of burning in these states is much bigger than elsewhere.
Even in these states, this practice is relatively new. Even 10 years ago, the crop-burning problem was not this acute.
The burning is necessitated by the need to prepare the fields for the next crop in a very short window of time. Due to a slight shift in the cropping pattern in these states, there is now very little time between the harvesting of one crop and the planting of the next crop.
The traditional method of manually uprooting, or cutting, the stumps of the previous crop is time-consuming, and can delay the sowing of the next crop. So farmers resort to the easier option of burning these remains.
Several solutions have been suggested, and are being tried. These include suggestions to change the crop cycle, deployment of mechanised equipment for harvesting that would render burning unnecessary, and conversion of this waste into something more useful, like a source of energy, which can become an incentive for not burning.
Hundreds of crores have been allocated in the last few years to buy the necessary equipment or to try out the alternative methods of dealing with this problem. But clearly, these equipment and methods have not been deployed effectively.
How governors can be removed from office (Page no. 15)
(GS Paper 2, Parliament and State Legislature)
Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) leader TR Baalu urged “all like-minded MPs” to support a proposal to remove the Tamil Nadu governor, R N Ravi.
In a letter, Baalu said, “Members of Parliament belonging to DMK and like-minded political parties are requested to kindly visit Anna Arivalaiyam Headquarters to read and sign in a memorandum addressed to the Hon’ble President of India, pertaining to the immediate withdrawal of the Governor of Tamil Nadu.
The DMK’s call for removal comes when Governors in several non-BJP-ruled states, including Kerala and Punjab, have expressed disagreements with the government on various issues.
Under Article 155 and 156 of the Constitution, a Governor is appointed by the President and holds office “during the pleasure of the President”. If this pleasure is withdrawn before completion of the five-year term, the Governor has to step down.
As the President works on the aid and advice of the Prime Minister and the council of ministers, in effect, the Governor can be appointed and removed by the central government.
Thus, a Governor is a representative of the Union government in states. Article 163 of the Constitution says the Governor will normally be aided and advised by the Council of Ministers except in those functions which require his discretion.
While the Governor’s duties and responsibilities lie in a particular state, there is no provision for impeaching the Governor.
Although envisaged as an apolitical head who must act on the advice of the council of ministers, the Governor enjoys certain powers granted under the Constitution, such as giving or withholding assent to a Bill passed by the state legislature, assenting to the convening of the state legislative assembly, determining the time needed for a party to prove its majority, and which party must be called first do so, generally after a hung verdict in an election.
All these powers have been flashpoints recently — to cite two instances, when the Maharashtra Governor had Devendra Fadnavis sworn in as the chief minister in 2019 amid a hung verdict, only for his government to fall in 80 hours; and when the Punjab Governor in September refused to allow a special session of the Assembly for a vote of confidence in the AAP government.
There are no provisions laid down in the Constitution for the manner in which the Governor and the state must engage publicly when there is a difference of opinion. The management of differences has traditionally been guided by respect for each other’s boundaries.
Since the Governor holds office “on the pleasure of the President”, questions have been raised time and again on whether the Governor has any security of tenure, and if the President is obligated to show reasons for recalling a Governor.