The petitioner claimed that there were instances where there was a mismatch between the Aadhaar database and the database of the EPFO.
The Delhi High Court on Friday extended the deadline for citizens to link their Aadhaar number with the Universal Account Number (UAN). The new deadline is now dated November 31, 2021, and the linking/verification need to be carried out by this time. Failure to do so would result in the employer’s contribution not being credited into the employee’s account. You would also lose out on the EPF benefits if it is not done. These benefits include the likes of Covid-19 advances, insurance benefits and so on.
In the ruling, Justice Prathiba M Singh said that till the time of the deadline, the employer would be allowed to deposit the provident funds even for the employees who have not completed the Aadhaar-UAN linking. The judge went on to say that no coercive measures shall be taken against them. The judge also said that unless and until the issue of whether mandatory seeding is legally valid or not is determined, there cannot be any exclusion of benefits to the employee under the Act, due to failure to authenticate or verify one’s Aadhaar. This was stated in an earlier order on September 17, 2021, as per a PTI report.
The court, which was dealing with a petition by the Association of Industries and Institutions, said that the Employees’ Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO) would appoint a Grievance Redressal Officer. This officer can then be contacted by the petitioner’s members or any other employer so as to make sure that the deposits are not delayed.
On the other hand, for those employees that have already submitted their Aadhaar to the EPFO, the provident fund can be deposited immediately and it would not need additional verification from the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) while they wait for the verification process to take place.
These changes come in light of the petitioner, who is an association of various entities and persons stated to be owning and running industrial/commercial establishments, factories, institutions, who moved the court against the EPFO circular that was issued on June 1, 2021. This earlier circular had made the linking of Aadhaar to UAN mandatory under the Employees Provident Fund and Miscellaneous Provisions Act, 1952. Following this, the central government had extended the deadline to September 1.
The petitioner claimed that there were instances where there was a mismatch between the Aadhaar database and the database of the EPFO. This resulted in many employers being forced not to employ those employees who did not have proper Aadhaar cards. The Petitioner touted this to be an ‘enormous prejudice’ being caused as a result of the EPFO’s order, stated the PTI report.
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As a result of the pandemic, many migrant workers who had previously moved out of major cities and to their home villages tried to join back with their employers after returning. However, they were unable to do so as they could not arrange for supporting documents that would allow for the seeding of Aadhaar to the UAN.
Speaking on the extension of the deadline, Vaibhav Bhardwaj, a Partner at IndusLaw, said, “This is a progressive step since it would reduce the procedural and compliance requirements of the employer. Additionally, the employees would also get a real-time update of the contributions being credited to their accounts on a monthly basis, while the process of withdrawals, transfer and interest credits would also become easier.”
“The move is also in line with the Government’s recent drive towards mobilizing a national database for unorganized workers and would aid in extending the benefit of various welfare schemes to millions of underprivileged workers,” added Bhardwaj.
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It should also be noted that the EPFO had given a deadline of December 31 for establishments in the North East regions of India as well as certain classes of establishments, however, no further extensions were granted in the general context for those employees whose Aadhaar was not seeded. This came on the back of claims by the EPFO that ‘adequate time’ had passed since the initial notification in October 2017.
The court has noted that the total number of employees whose Aadhaar seeding and verification are yet to be done, stands at 2,926,479, according to the PTI report.
