FREE INDIA INDUSTRIES Vs. REGIONAL PROVIDENT FUND COMMISSIONER

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THE petitioner-firm, Free India Industries, Jullundur City, carries on the business of body building on chassis at Jullunder City. The Regional Provident Fund Commissioner, Punjab, made demands from time to time on the petitioner-firm for the payment of the provident fund under the provisions of the Employees' Provident Funds Act, 1952 (hereinafter referred to as the Act), and threatened to prosecute them under Section 14 of the Act for non-compliance. The present petition was brought under Articles 226 and 227 of the Constitution of India read with Section 561a of the Criminal Procedure Code. Two main points were taken in the petition: first, that Section 5 of the Act is ultra vires of the Constitution inasmuch as the powers of deciding which industry will be governed by the provisions of the Act, is left entirely in the hands of the executive, and, secondly, that the business in which the petitioner-firm Is engaged does not fall within the purview of the Act.

(2.) IN the reply filed by respondent Regional Provident Fund Commissioner, Punjab, it was admitted that the petitioner-firm carries on the business of body-building on chassis. It was, however, denied that the process of bodybuilding on chassis merely Involved carpentry work, as was alleged by the petitioner-firm.

(3.) IN a number of oases decided by this Court the provisions of Section 5 of, the Act have been Meld to be intra vires and it is not open to me to go into this question afresh.