REGIONAL PROVIDENT FUND COMMISSIONER Vs. K.I. GARG

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The present civil writ petition under Article 227 of the Constitution of India has been preferred by the petitioner challenging the warrant of attachment dtd. 11/4/2022 issued by the learned Civil Judge, Hanumangarh, in execution of the award dtd. 20/7/2010 passed by the Permanent Lok Adalat, Hanumangarh.

(2.) Learned counsel for the petitioner submits that respondent No. 1 was an employee of the erstwhile Rajasthan Electricity Board and joined service on 23/1/1962. He retired on 31/5/2002 pursuant to an application for voluntary retirement. He became a member of the Family Pension Scheme, 1971 governed by the Employees Provident Fund Organisation in the year 1971 and, thereafter, opted for the pension scheme introduced by his department in 1988. Upon retirement, he applied for withdrawal of his General Provident Fund, and a sum of Rs.4,17,031.00 stood accumulated in his account as on 11/12/2002. His pension was also duly determined. Subsequently, respondent No. 1 sought refund of the contribution made by him to the Employees Provident Fund Department, which came to be rejected. Aggrieved thereby, he filed an application before the Permanent Lok Adalat, Hanumangarh seeking refund of the accumulated amount along with interest. The Permanent Lok Adalat, vide award dtd. 20/7/2010, directed refund of the amount lying deposited in the employees EPF account with interest. The petitioner preferred a review application, which was partly allowed vide order dtd. 5/2/2018, whereby the expression "EPF" was substituted with "FPF".

(3.) Learned counsel further submits that the petitioner, being aggrieved by the award of the Permanent Lok Adalat, initially filed Writ Petition No. 12747/2018, which was dismissed with liberty to file a fresh petition. Accordingly, Writ Petition No. 639/2020 was instituted. During the pendency of the said writ petition, the learned Executing Court initiated execution proceedings and issued the impugned warrant of attachment dtd. 11/4/2022.