“What…? Judges’ GPF accounts closed…?” Shocked at closure of Pune High Court judges’ accounts, CJI held hearing on Friday

In fact, seven judges of the Supreme Court have complained in the Supreme Court on Tuesday that their General Provident Fund (GPF) has been closed by the Accountant General of Bihar on the basis of opinion from the Ministry of Law and Justice, which has led to pension and other contracts. But there is doubt.

Justice Shailendra Singh, Justice Arun Kumar Jha, Justice Jitendra Kumar, Justice Alok Kumar Pandey, Justice Sunil Dutta Mishra, Justice Chandra Prakash Sheikh Singh and Justice Chandrar Jha have made this petition. These judges were appointed as Additional District and Sessions Judges in April 2010 as direct recruits under the Superior Communication Services of Bihar. He was appointed as a judge in the High Court last year. When he was the Visitor Officer, he was part of the National Pension Scheme ie NPS.

In the year 2016, the Government of Bihar made a policy that people moving from New Pension Scheme to Old Pension Scheme would be eligible to get back their NPS contribution amount. It can either be kept in their bank account or can be deposited in GPF account. On becoming High Court Judges, they were given a GPF account each, where they deposited the NPS contribution after withdrawing it. In November last year, these judges had sought an explanation from the Accountant General of Bihar to the Ministry of Law and Justice regarding the reversal of NPS contribution to GPF. These GPF benefits were discontinued after the opinion of the Ministry.