The pension regulator PFRDA will soon examine the Delhi High Court’s directions in the matter of selecting pension fund managers for the private sector National Pension System (NPS).

“We have received the Delhi High Court’s order and will in the next few days start examining it,” RV Verma, officiating Chairman of the PFRDA, told Business Line here.

He was responding to a query on whether the Pension Fund Regulatory and Development Authority (PFRDA) proposes to call for fresh bids for selection of pension fund managers in the wake of the Delhi High Court’s order.

The court had recently set aside PFRDA’s decision of rejecting HDFC Life’s bid under the Request for Proposal (RFP) for selection of pension fund managers.

The court is understood to have directed PFRDA to evaluate HDFC Life’s bid in accordance with the steps outlined in the RFP.

HDFC Life Insurance had filed a writ petition in the Delhi High Court challenging what it considered as PFRDA’s wrongful disqualification of its bid.

HDFC Pension Management Co, a wholly-owned subsidiary of HDFC Life Insurance, was among the 10 bidders that had evinced interest in managing the NPS for the private sector. But it’s bid was summarily disqualified by the PFRDA on technical grounds.

Reliance Capital’s pension fund management subsidiary had emerged as the lowest bidder when commercial bids were opened by PFRDA.

This subsidiary had bid at a fund management fee of one paisa for every ₹100 of assets under management. PFRDA had then asked other bidders to match the lowest bid.

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