The Delhi High Court (HC) recently upheld the validity of the 2008 and 2010 notifications that require non-excluded international workers employed in India to mandatorily enrol in the Employees’ Provident Fund (EPF), dismissing writ petitions by SpiceJet and LG Electronics. A Bench of Chief Justice Devendra Kumar Upadhyaya and Justice Tushar Rao Gedela held that the Central Government was empowered to extend the EPF Scheme, 1952, to foreign nationals and that the classification between Indian and foreign workers was constitutionally permissible.
“We have already held above that there is no legal infirmity in the said notifications,” the Court said while recording its conclusions. Explaining its decision, the Court applied the classic Article 14 test, endorsed permissible classification and expressly disagreed with a contrary single-judge view of the Karnataka High Court on similar issues.
“We have already held above that the classification in the instant case has a reasonable basis, which is based on economic duress, and such consideration is absent in the judgment rendered by the Karnataka High Court,” the Court observed. The Court also addressed the challenge to the withdrawal condition, noting the international obligations backdrop to paragraph 83 and the role of Social Security Agreements (SSAs).
