THE REGIONAL PROVIDENT FUND COMMISSIONER Vs. KERALA SMALL INDUSTRIES DEVELOPMENT CORPORATION LTD.HIRUVANANTHAPURAM

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This review petition arises out of the judgment of this Court dated 7.6.2016 in W.A.No. 116 of 2007. The said writ appeal arises out of the judgment of the learned Single Judge of this Court dated 24.05.2009 in O.P.No. 22918 of 1998, an original petition filed by the Kerala Small Industries Development Corporation (for brevity, 'SIDCO'), the 1st respondent herein, challenging Ext.P7 order passed by the petitioner herein and Ext.P9 order passed by the Employees Provident Fund Appellate Tribunal, the 3rd respondent herein, and for a declaration that the head-load workers of the 4th respondent herein, who are the headload workers of Kadavanthara area, covered by the Kerala Headload Workers Act, 1978 and the Scheme framed thereunder, as disclosed from Ext.P13 certificate of registration issued by the Kerala Headload Workers Welfare Board, the 8th respondent herein, are not part-time workers of SIDCO and they do not come under the purview of section 2(f) of the Employees Provident Funds and Miscellaneous Provisions Act, 1952 (for brevity, 'the EPF Act').

(2.) After considering the rival contentions, the learned Single Judge by the judgment dated 24.05.2009 set aside Exts.P7 and P9 orders, holding that, since provision being present in relation to provident fund under the Kerala Headload Workers Act and the said Act being assented to by the President, it is the said Act which would prevail over the earlier Central enactment, i.e., the EPF Act. Feeling aggrieved by the judgment of the learned Single Judge, the petitioner herein (2nd respondent in the O.P.) filed W.A.No. 116 of 2007.

(3.) The question that came up for consideration before this Court in the said writ appeal was whether the provisions under the EPF Act and the Scheme framed thereunder is applicable in the case of the headload workers engaged by SIDCO at its Raw Materials Division at Gandhi Nagar, Kadavanthra, in view of the fact that the workers in question are essentially headload workers and the State Legislature has enacted the Kerala Headload Workers Act, 1978 besides the Headload Workers (Regulation of Employment and Welfare) Scheme in the year 1983.