P.D. Sharma, J. - (1.) THE Employees' State Insurance Corporation through the Regional Director filed petition No. 7 of 1961 under Section 75(2) of the Employees' State Insurance Act, 1948, (hereinafter to be referred to as the Act) in the Employees' Insurance Court, Ambala, for the Recovery of Rs. 997/ - in respect of employee's contribution for the period from 1st October, 1958, to 30th June, 1960, against (1) Fauja Singh manager and principal employer of Messrs. O.P. Oberoi and Company, Abdullapur, and (2) Messrs. O.P Oberoi and Company, Abdullapur. The details of the amount in question are given in schedule 'A' forming annexure to the petition. The Petitioner contended that Messrs O.P. Oberoi and Company Respondent No. 2 was a factory as defined in Sub -section (12) of Section 2, that Fauja Singh Respondent No. 1 was the manager and principal employer thereof as defined in Sub -section (17) of Section 2 of the Act, and that during an inspection of the Respondents' factory by an inspector of the Corporation on 21st July, 1960, it was found that the Respondents had not paid employees' contribution on a sum of wages amounting to Rs. 39,864 -82 nP. which they were required to do under Section 40(1) of the Act.
(2.) THE Respondents contested the above claim on the ground that the sum of Rs. 39,854.82 nP. entered in schedule 'A' was not wages but represented the dues of the contractors paid to them for the work done outside the factory premises, that the contractors were not their employees and that the claim was barred by time. The following issues were framed: (1) Whether the Respondent is liable to pay the sum claimed in the petition ? (2) Is the claim within time ?
(3.) THE Regional Director of the Employees 'State Insurance Corporation, Amritsar, demanded a sum of Rs. 518/ - on account of employer's special contribution on the wages paid by Fauja Singh, manager and principal employer of Messrs. O.P. Oberoi and Company, Abdullapur, during the years 1958 -59 and 1959 -60 (up to June, 1960), and on the Respondent's failure to comply with the demand he moved the Collector for realisation of the sum in dispute as arrears of land revenue. Thereupon Fauja Singh instituted the present petition No. 20 of 1981 under Section 78 of the Act in the Employees' Insurance Court, Ambala, for a declaration that the amount of Rs. 518/ -was not legally due and recoverable from him and further prayed for an injunction restraining the Regional Director from realising the same from him. He contended that the amount on which employer's special contribution had been assessed by the Regional Director was not paid as wages to employees but represented the payments made to contractors or casual labourers.;