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Judgment
Amrita Sinha, J
The petitioners were the workers of the Jogmaya Cinema Hall. The private respondents being respondent nos. 7, 8 and 9 are the lessees in respect of the said cinema hall.
A provident fund account was opened in the name of the workers of the cinema hall in the year 1994-1995. The petitioners state that they have deposited the employees' share and the private respondents have deposited the employer's share in the said provident fund account.
The petitioners made applications on November 12, 2018 and June 25, 2019 requesting the provident fund authority to release the provident fund amount that has been accumulated and lying unpaid in favour of the petitioners.
The applications of the petitioners have not been responded till date.
The petitioners have prayed for a direction upon the provident fund authority for disbursal of the provident fund dues in their favour.
The learned advocate for the provident fund authority submits that several proceedings were initiated against the establishment i.e. M/s, Jogmaya Cinema, but the establishment did not comply the statutory provisions and committed defaults for different periods from 05/1995 to 12/2004 and proceedings under Section 7A of the Employees' Provident Fund and Miscellaneous Provisions Act 1952 were initiated and the amount which was due after issuing Revenue Recovery Certificate upto 12/2004 was assessed in total i.e. Rs. 3,50,860.60p out of which Rs. 3,16,869/- has been recovered.
It is further submitted that there are six challans for different periods between 10/1995 to 05/1998 total amounting to Rs. 33,991. For want of proper verification the aforesaid money cannot be processed for crediting the same in favour of the individual employees. It has been alleged that the private respondents failed to submit the statutory returns properly from the date of coverage. The establishment also did not submit the individual statement of the employees i.e. the petitioners.
It has been submitted that a sum of Rs.60,981/- is payable by the establishment as the employer has made default in payment of contribution under Section 6, 6A and 6C of the Employees' Provident Fund Act read with paragraph 38 of the Employees' Provident Fund Scheme, paragraph 3 of the Employees' Pension Scheme, 1995 and paragraph 8(1) of the Employees' Deposit Link Insurance Scheme, 1976 of Employees' Provident Fund & Miscellaneous Provisions Act, 1952. The establishment is liable to pay damages and interest on account of such default.
The learned advocate appearing on behalf of the private respondents submits that the cinema hall is not running for a considerable period of time and they do not have the complete records of the employees with them.
After hearing the submissions made on behalf of both the parties the instant writ petition is disposed of by directing the petitioners to take make application before the provident fund authority in the prescribed Form 19, Form 10(D)/Form 10(C), for availing their benefit under the EPF Scheme 1952/EPS 1955 of EPF & MP Act, 1952.
The private respondents are also directed to submit the copies of the returns in Form 12A(R), Form 3A(R) and Form 6A(R) since the date of coverage along with the copy of the bank-receipted challans.
The provident fund authority is directed to take steps to ensure that the employees are paid their statutory dues at the earliest without any unnecessary delay.
WP No. 13859(W) 2019 is disposed of accordingly.
Urgent photostat certified copy of this order, if applied for, shall be given to the parties as expeditiously as possible on compliance of all necessary formalities.