The Allahabad High Court on Tuesday said the Uttar Pradesh government cannot not stop salary of its employees only on the ground that they had not opted for National Pension System (NPS).

The Lucknow bench of Justice Pankaj Bhatia directed the state that the salary of the petitioners would not be stopped until its further orders as the matter required consideration.

The bench passed the order on a writ petition by Yogendra Kumar Sagar and others. It further directed the state counsel as well as basic education department's counsel - Ran Vijay Singh and Ajay Kumar - to file their response on the issue within six weeks.

Earlier, the petitioners had pleaded that initially through a notification of March 28, 2005, NPS was made mandatory for employees who had joined after April 1, 2005 and was voluntary for those employees who were employed earlier to April 1, 2005. The petitioners further pleaded that they had not opted for NPS.

It was further argued that the state government issued an order on December 16, 2022 whereby it had been provided that the employees who did not opt for the NPS and did not get their registration done under PRAN would not be entitled to salary.

Challenging this order, the petitioners said NPS in the form in which it had been envisaged, could not be made mandatory for the employees and in any case their salary could not be stopped merely because they were unwilling to opt for the scheme.

After hearing the respondent counsel, the bench passed the interim order saying the issue had to be decided finally.?

- With PTI Input