(1.) THE following is the question posed before this Bench :
(2.) EMPLOYEES' State Insurance Corporation, respondents herein, passed orders, claiming the E. S. I. Contribution arrears from the appellants/various companies. Assailing those orders, the appellants filed separate writ petitions before the learned single Judge, on the ground that the orders passed by the Corporation were time barred. However, the learned single Judge, ultimately, dismissed those writ petitions and directed the appellants to invoke the alternative remedy, by approaching the E. S. I. Court and to raise the point. The said orders, passed by the learned single Judge, are being challenged in these Writ Appeals.
(3.) THE main point urged by the learned Senior Counsel, appearing on behalf of the appellants in these appeals, is that the Corporation cannot make any claim against the employer after a period of five years, to which the claim relates, as incorporated in Section 77 (1a) (b) proviso of the Act, and since it relates to the bar of jurisdiction, the appellants have directly approached the High Court under Article 226 of the Constitution and, as such, the learned single Judge, instead of deciding the point in issue, wrongly directed the appellants to approach the E. S. I. Court and invoke the alternative remedy.