A.CHANDRAKUMARAN NAIR Vs. EMPLOYEES PROVIDENT FUND ORGANIZATION

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This Review Petition is filed seeking to review the judgment dtd. 21/7/2025 in W.A.No.852 of 2022. Review Petitioners were respondents 1 to 67 in the said Writ Appeal.

(2.) The Writ Appeal was filed by respondents 1 to 3 challenging the judgment dtd. 28/3/2022 of the learned Single Judge in W.P.(C) No.7801 of 2020 inter alia directing respondents 1 to 3 to encash the DD deposited by the 4th respondent towards alleged deficiency and arrears and thereafter to issue a letter for details of the alleged arrears by providing record of the employees and other registers maintained in the office, including the Employees Provident Fund numbers assigned to the employees. It was also directed that after scrutiny of the said documents, if any further deficiency is found, the EPFO shall send the demand after undertaking the exercise of computation and shall also take action as provided under Ss. 7Q and 14B of the Employees Provident Funds and Miscellaneous Provisions Act, 1952 (EPF Act).

(3.) This Court, had vide the judgment sought to be reviewed, allowed the Writ Appeal inter alia holding that affecting retrospective contributions and seeking payment on the said basis has the propensity to burden the EPFO and to unsettle its actuarial basis. It was held that determination of the moneys due from the employer under Sec. 7A and issuance of an order calling upon the employer after quantification is a sine qua non for receiving deficiency or arrears from the employer. It was thus concluded that in the total absence of legal norms that permit retrospective coverage, the learned Single Judge had erred in directing the CIAL to produce a DD for the alleged deficiency of contribution for the period 1995 to 2003 and in directing the appellants EPFO to encash the said DD and undertake the computation as envisaged under the EPF Act.