A consumer court has directed the Employees’ Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO) to pay 6 per cent interest to a retired employee for a 35-day delay in settling his provident fund claim of over Rs 14 lakh. The court held that the statutory body failed to process the claim within the stipulated 20-day period under the EPF Scheme, 1952.
In an order passed last week, the Mumbai Suburban District Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission found the EPFO guilty of deficiency in service. It ordered the organisation to pay interest at 6 per cent per annum on the claim amount of Rs 14,06,272 for the delay period from November 9, 2016, to December 13, 2016.
The complainant, a former employee of Fleet Maritime Services (India) Pvt Ltd, said he had submitted a complete PF claim on October 19, 2016, but the EPFO did not settle it within the prescribed period. The EPFO argued that the required joint declaration had not been submitted with the original claim and that the papers were returned on November 7, 2016. It said a complete set of documents was received only on December 2, 2016, after which the provident fund claim was settled on December 14, 2016, within 20 days.
However, the commission rejected the EPFO’s defence, saying the organisation had failed to produce any written rejection letter or deficiency communication sent to the complainant to show that the original submission was incomplete.
“On the evidence available on record, the Opposite Party has failed to satisfactorily establish that the claim was incomplete on 19.10.2016,” the commission said. It added that the organisation should have processed and settled the claim within the prescribed period and that the failure to do so amounted to “deficiency in service.”
The EPFO has been given 45 days to comply with the order, which held it responsible for the delay in settling the retired employee’s claim.