CENTRAL INDIA EXCISE TRADERS, A REGISTERED PARTNERSHIP FIRM Vs. THE REGIONAL PROVIDENT FUND COMMISSIONER

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THE petitioner is a registered partnership firm and holds licences for the wholesale supply of country spirit in sealed bottles and loose in areas under the contract supply system, under the terms of the licences granted in accordance with the provisions of M.P. Excise Act, 1950 (in short 'The State Act').

(2.) THE petitioner calls in question the order dated 22 -4 -1981 (Annexure P -13), passed by the Regional Provident Fund Commissioner, M. P., Indore, while deciding the dispute under section 7 -A of Employees Provident Fund and M. P. Act, 1952 (in short 'the Act'), whereby he held that the provisions of the Act are applicable to the petitioner as an employer making it obligatory to comply with the provisions of the Provident Funds Scheme framed under the Act in respect of its employees.

(3.) THE Provident Fund Inspector working under the Regional Provident Fund Commissioner, on an inspection of the government warehouses where the petitioner was engaged in the aforesaid activities, found 48 employees working and submitted a report to the above effect on 10 -5 -1974. Accordingly, the Commissioner directed the petitioner to report compliance of the provisions of the Act concerning its employees. The petitioner denied that it was engaged in any scheduled industry of 'distilling or rectifying of spirit' and that it could not be held liable to comply, with the provisions of the Act under the said head. The Regional Provident Fund Commissioner, on the objection raised by the petitioner, sent another communication dated 22 -5 -1976 (Annexure P -7) informing that the Act is applicable to the petitioner not under the scheduled head 'Distilling and Rectifying of Spirit', as was informed earlier, but the petitioner was covered under the head 'Trading and Commercial Establishments", with effect from 31 -5 -1974. The petitioner again objected to its alleged coverage under the aforesaid head 'Trading and Commercial Establishments' and took up the matter in writ petition in M. P. No. 749/76 to the High Court in which the Court by order dated 15 -12 -1979 (Annexure P. 11) sent back the matter to the Regional Provident Fund Commissioner to determine the dispute judicially in accordance with the provisions of section 7 -A of the Act. The Commissioner thereafter fully heard the parties, took relevant evidence on record and determined the dispute judicially under section 7 -A of the Act by order impugned (Annexure P. 13), whereby he held that the petitioner was liable to comply with the provisions of the Act being covered under the head "Trading and Commercial Establishments", under the Notification No. 346 dated 7 -3 -1962, issued under section 1(3) of the Act.