Incomprehensible How Investment Of Pension Fund Can Be Made By Transferring It To State Treasury: Kerala High Court Dismisses Plea

The Kerala High Court has dismissed a plea requesting that the Kerala State Co-operative Employees' Pension Board be directed to not use the pension funds for any other purpose since it was likely to be transferred to the State Treasury. The court remarked that it was implausible for an investment of the 'Corpus Fund' to be transferred into the 'State Treasury'.

“Prima facie, I cannot find favour with the petitioners for another reason, namely that it is incomprehensible how an investment of the 'Corpus Fund' can be made by its transfer into the 'State Treasury', since this does not appear to be authorised by the Schemes; nor can it be normally seen to be 'investment', to obtain growth” observed Justice Devan Ramachandran.

The petitioners argued that the corpus of the pension fund, under the provisions of the Kerala Co-operative Societies Employees Self-Financing Pension Scheme, 1994, and the State Co-operative Bank and District Co-operative Bank Employees Self Financing Pension Scheme, 2005 is likely to be transferred to the State Treasury, as per the instructions of the Government of Kerala.

As such, they requested a direction to ensure that the Kerala State Co-operative Employees Pension Board which administers the afore Corpus, does not use it for any purpose other than disbursement of pension.

PP Thajudheen, the special government pleader argued that even though Clause 32 of the '1994 Scheme' and Clause 22 of the '2005 Scheme' permits and authorizes the Government to invest the 'Corpus Fund' in such manner as is statutorily enumerated, the Government has taken no decision in that regard as of now.

M Sasindran, standing counsel for the pension board also reiterated that the pension board has not received any instruction from the Government as feared by the petitioners and that all such are merely speculative.

He reiterated that the Pension Board has not taken any decision to transfer the Corpus to any investment and that all such assertions are without basis.

As such, the writ petition was dismissed.

Case Citation: 2024 LiveLaw (Ker) 227

Case Title: N. Swaminathan and ors. v. State of Kerala and ors.

Case Number: WP(C) No. 10866 of 2024, WP(C) No. 11120 of 2024, WP(C) No. 11174 of 2024, WP(C) No. 11621 of 2024, WP(C) No. 11996 of 2024

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