- (1.) THIS writ petition was filed in this Court under Articles 226 and 227 of the Constitution of India in the matter of Section 7-A of the Employees' Provident Funds and Miscellaneous Provisions Act, 1952 (for short 'the Act') against the order of Regional Provident Fund Commissioner, Jaipur dated June 4,1984 (impugned) in the present petition. The petitioner has also challenged the vires of Section 7-A of the Act and has prayed for issuance of an appropriate writ, order or direction for deletion of the said provision from the Statute and has further prayed for quashing of the impugned order dated June 4, 1984 passed by the Regional Provident Fund Commissioner.
(2.) THE facts giving rise to this writ petition briefly stated are that the petitioner-establishment is a registered society, registered under the Rajasthan Societies Registration Act, 1958 on April 25, 1978 and started manufacturing Khadi with effect from April, 1979. Soon after its registration, the petitioner-establishment undertook the work of manufacturing Khadi in Village Kumher in District Bharatpur, which, according to the petitioner, was earlier undertaken by Bharatpur Zila Khadi Gramodyog Samiti from Kumher area and the aforesaid work was given to the petitioner-establishment. It is further stated in the petition that since the petitioner was registered as an independent institution and had also decided to work in accordance with the policies of Khadi and Village Industries Commission, the Khadi and Village Industries Commission, Bombay, started giving loans and subsidy to the petitioner for production of Khadi. It is further stated that the petitioner-establishment has absolutely no connection with Bharatpur Zila Khadi and Gramodyog Samiti and as such it can neither be said to be continuation unit nor a part of the erstwhile unit i. e. Bharatpur Zila Khadi and Gramodyog Samiti and that the petitioner-establishment is not covered under the provisions of the Employees' Provident Funds and Miscellaneous Provisions Act, 1952. The number of employees of the petitioner-establishment was 20 upto 1982 and in the year 1983 with the development of the work, strength of the workers increased to 22 employees in all.
(3.) THE petitioner-establishment, as per the policy of the society, took unilateral decision to extend the facilities of Provident Fund to its employees from the date of formation of the society and accordingly a trust was created for the purposes of enabling the petitioner to deposit both contributions towards Provident Fund amount i. e. of employees as well as the employer's contribution in the said Trust formed for the purpose of Provident Fund with the Punjab National Bank, Kumher.;