On January 5, 2025, the Supreme Court allowed petitioner Naveen Prakash Nautiyal, represented by advocates Pranav Sachdeva and Neha Rathi, to approach the Centre with a request to revise the wage ceiling for the Employees Provident Fund Scheme (EPFO). The court directed the petitioner to submit the representation within two weeks, along with a copy of the order. The government was given four months to decide on the matter. The petitioner pointed out that even though minimum wages set by the Central and State governments exceed the existing EPFO wage ceiling of ₹15,000 per month, the ceiling hasn’t been updated accordingly. This has prevented many workers from getting full benefits and protection under the EPFO, a crucial welfare scheme. The petition stated, “The EPFO, which administers social security schemes for employees, currently excludes from coverage those whose wages exceed ₹15,000 per month. However, the wage ceiling has historically been revised inconsistently, sometimes after 13-14 years, without any fixed periodicity or linkage to relevant economic indicators such as inflation, minimum wages, per capita income or consumer price index.” This irregular revision policy has excluded large parts of the workforce from the scheme, defeating its purpose of providing social security to organized sector employees. The plea also noted that both the Public Accounts Committee of the 16th Lok Sabha and EPFO’s own Sub-Committee on Enhancing Coverage and Managing Related Litigation recommended a periodic and logical revision of this ceiling in 2022. Yet, despite Central Board (EPF) approval in July 2022, the government has not acted. The petition highlights two main issues: absence of a fixed timeline for regular wage ceiling revision and arbitrary updates leading to reduced coverage. It argued that the scheme, which was inclusive during its first 30 years, has become exclusionary in the last three decades.