Central Provident Fund Commissioner v. S. Pitchiah
IN THE HIGH COURT OF JUDICATURE AT MADRAS
DATED: 21.09.2023
CORAM:
THE HON'BLE MR. JUSTICE S. VAIDYANATHAN and THE HON'BLE MR. JUSTICE K. RAJASEKAR W.A. No.2560 of 2023 & C.M.P. No.21622 of 2023 W.A. No.2563 of 2023 & C.M.P. No.21628 of 2023 1.
The Central Provident Fund Commissioner Employees Provident Fund Organisation Ministry of Labour & Employment Government of India Bhavishya Nidhi Bhavan 14, Bhikaji Cama Place New Delhi 110 066 2.
The Additional Central Provident fund Commissioner HQ (Pension) Employees Provident Fund Organisation Bhavishya Nidhi Bhavan 14, Bhikaji Cama Place New Delhi 110 066 3.
The Regional Provident Fund Commissioner-I (Pension) Employees Provident Fund Organisation Bhavishya Nidhi Bhavan 14, Bhikaji Cama Place New Delhi 110 066 4.
The Additional Central Provident Fund Commissioner Employees Provident Fund Organisation 37, Royapettah High Road Chennai 600 014 1/10
5.
The Regional Provident Fund Commissioner Employees Provident Fund Organisation 37, Royapettah High Road Chennai 600 014 Appellants in both appeals v 1.
S. Pitchiah 2.
R. Dhanasekaran 3.
P.N. Sivadasan 4.
D. Mahalingam 5.
M. Nirmala Devi 6.
C. Ramalingam 7.
V. Muthukumaran 8.
V.R. Meenakshi 9.
S. Subramanian 10.
A. Umadevi 11.
R. Sampath Kumar 12.
N. Sulaika Beevi 13.
B. Augustine 14.
S.A. Kathija 15.
G. Gopalakrishnan 16.
V. Dhinakaran 17.
C. Munusamy 18.
K. Packirisamy 19.
S. Viswanathan 20.
S. Kamalaveni Sundaram 21.
T. Devairakkam 22.
P.S. Piramanayagam 23.
C. Ilangovan 24.
S. Govindarajan 25.
J.A. Jothi 26.
S. Krishnamurthy 27.
K. Ilango 28.
C.R. Gopinath 29.
K.P. Thangavel 30.
S. Leela 31.
D. Chandrasekar 32.
A. Somasundaram 33.
R.P. Chellappan 34.
T. Venu 35.
G. Subramanian 36.
B. Karpaga Sundari 2/10
37.
Lakshmi Krishnamurthy 38.
R. Bama 39.
K. Gurunathan 40.
Suriya Kumari Palani 41.
B. Prabhakaran 42.
P. Vijayalakshmi 43.
P. Hemalatha 44.
R. Gopalakrishnan 45.
R. Mutharasan 46.
M. Thiyagarajan 47.
N. Palani 48.
S. Rajendran 49.
S. Muthukumaran 50.
A.R. Palaniappan 51.
K. Kesavalu 52.
K.V. Ponnusamy 53.
V. Vidhyavathy 54.
M. Ramalingam 55.
C. Krishnamoorthy 56.
T. Rajendiran 57.
M. Sekaran 58.
G. Aruchamy 59.
A.P. Jayachandran 60.
S. Thangamani 61.
P. Selwyn Chandra Doss Geoffrey 62.
T.R. Surendran 63.
M.V. Balasubramanian 64.
K.S. Shanmuga Sundaram 65.
A. Rangaraju 66.
J. Asokan 67.
S.V. Yoganathan 68.
M. Sundara Murthy 69.
R. Pandian 70.
A. Elangovan 71.
Money Jeyakumar 72.
R. Balasubramanyan 73.
R. Srinivasan 74.
A. Muniyayah 75.
K. Srinivasan 76.
P. Chandran 77.
P.K. Kothandapani 78.
M. Shanmugam 3/10
79.
S. Vathsala 80.
A. Aiyappan 81.
A. Chandra Paul Pandian 82.
S.H. Syed Ibrahim 83.
A. Dhanaraj 84.
S. Hemavathy 85.
K. Ramiah 86.
V. Mahendran 87.
N. Thillairaj 88.
A. Mohamed Ghouse Shariff 89.
R. Gopi 90.
S.M. Jainul Abdeen 91.
M. Baskaran 92.
S. Srinivasan 93.
V. Dhanavelu 94.
T. Sridharan 95.
K. Vijayalakshmi 96.
J. Arasu 97.
R.Ravichandran 98.
S. Boopathy 99.
S. Sivakumaran 100.
A.M. Murugesh 101.
M. Selvaraj 102.
V. Rajendran 103.
A. Venkatachalam 104.
R. Quinston Sahayaraj 105.
K. Govindan
106. N. Gopalasamy 107.
S. Namasivayam 108.
M. Suriyamurthy 109.
M. Sankaran 110.
K.G. Shanmugam 111.
V. Thendral 112.
R. Gopalakrishnan 113.
M. Rajendiran 114.
M. Subramanian 115.
T.K. Panneer Selvam 116.
V. Jayaraj 117.
M. Ismail Khan 118.
R.A. Mahendira Varman 119.
V.K. Govindasamy 120.
R. Jothimani 4/10
121.
S. Murugesan 122.
V. Asokan 123.
K. Rajeswari 124.
G.K. Amirtha Gowri 125.
J. Samson Jayaseelan 126.
T. Mani Vasagam
127. N. Ramachandran 128.
T.V. Ganesan 129.
K. Ganapathy 130.
R. Rajendran 131.
K. Mohanarangasamy 132.
T. Baskaran 133.
T.P. Jagannathan 134.
V. Purushotham 135.
M. Jayakumar 136.
K. Rajaram 137.
A. Murugesan 138.
R. Radhakrishnan 139.
A.V.S. Janani 140.
V. Thandayuthapani 141.
M. Selvaraj 142.
B. Mohana Sundaram 143.
G. Boobathy 144.
B. Rani
145. N. Sukumar 146.
K. Manoharan 147.
Union of India represented by Secretary to Government of India Ministry of Labour & Employment Shram Shakti Bhawan Rafi Marg New Delhi 110 001 148.
The Managing Director The Tamil Nadu State Apex Cooperative Bank Ltd. 233 (New No.4) NSC Bose Road, Chennai 600 001 149.
The Chairman The TNSC Bank EPF Trust No.233 (New No.4) 5/10
NSC Bose Road Chennai 600 001 Respondents in W.A. No.2560/2023 1.
R. Raghupathy 2.
S.M. Arurmugam 3.
P. Manivel 4.
S. Karuppiah 5.
R. Ganesan 6.
G. Sheshayee 7.
K. Ramasamy 8.
S. Periyasamy 9.
L. Palanivel 10.
K. Duraisamy 11.
P. Muthusamy 12.
C. Annamalai 13.
K. Rajendran 14.
A. Muthusamy 15.
N. Venkatesan 16.
N. Jambulingam 17.
M. Thangaraj 18.
P. Mohanasundaram 19.
P. Ravichandran 20.
P. Muthusamy 21.
S. Veerapandian 22.
P. Rajaram 23.
S. Ravi 24.
D. Udayakumar 25.
J. Madhavan 26.
V. Subramaniyan 27.
P. Muraleetharan 28.
Union of India represented by Secretary to Government of India Ministry of Labour & Employment Shram Shakti Bhawan Rafi Marg New Delhi 110 001 29.
Tamil Nadu Cements Corporation Ltd.
represented by the Chairman & Managing Director LLA Buildings, II Floor 735 Anna Salai, Chennai 600 002 6/10
30.
TANCEM Provident Fund Trust represented by its Secretary LLA Buildings, II Floor 735 Anna Salai Chennai 600 002 Respondents in W.A. No.2563/2023 Writ Appeals filed under Clause 15 of the Letters Patent challenging the orders dated 24.04.2019 and 27.03.2019 passed in W.P. Nos.11967 of 2019 and 6902 of 2019 respectively.
For appellants in Mr. R. Vishnu both W.As.
For private respondents in Mr. Abishek Jenasenan both W.As.
COMMON JUDGMENT (delivered by S. VAIDYANATHAN, J.) These writ appeals are directed against the orders dated 24.04.2019 and 27.03.2019 passed in W.P. Nos.11967 of 2019 and 6902 of 2019, respectively. The issue involved in the instant writ appeals has already been considered by this very Bench in the Regional Provident Fund Commissioner-I (Pension) and 2 others v Food Corporation of India and 4 others1. For the sake of ready reference, the said judgment is extracted below: "This writ appeal is directed against the order dated 27.04.2019 passed by a Single Bench of this Court in W.P. No.33999 of 2017. Today, when this matter was taken up for hearing, Mr. Vishnu, learned Standing Counsel for the appellants/EPFO submitted that W.A. No.354 of 2021 decided on 21.08.2023 7/10
the issue involved in this writ appeal is covered by the order passed by a Coordinate Bench of this Court in P. Chandrasekaran v Union of India & 4 others2, in which, one of us (SVNJ) was a member, which was rendered following the 3 Judge Bench judgment of the Supreme Court in The EPFO and another v Sunil Kumar B. and others, etc.3. However, according to Mr. Vishnu, paragraph 4 of the order passed by this Court in P. Chandrasekaran, supra, which reads as under, cannot survive any more, in view of the fact that the time granted by the Supreme Court in Sunil Kumar B., supra, had already expired on 11.07.2023:
"4.
If the employees could not access the site, they shall take a screenshot and enclose the same with the hard copy to enable the Employees (sic) Provident Fund Organisation to process their option forms."
The submission made by Mr. Vishnu in paragraph 3, supra, is recorded and in view of the submission made by him in paragraph 2, supra, this writ appeal also is disposed of on the same terms in which P.Chandrasekaran, supra, was disposed of. No costs. Connected C.M.P. is closed."
In view of the above, these writ appeals also stand disposed of on the same terms on which W.A.No.354 of 2021 was disposed of. Costs made easy. Connected C.M.Ps. are closed.
(S.V.N., J.) (K.R.S., J.) 21.09.2023 cad W.P. Nos.20160 of 2019 etc. batch decided on 27.06.2023 2022 LiveLaw (SC) 912 8/10
To The Secretary to Government of India Ministry of Labour & Employment New Delhi 110 001 The Chairman (CPF Trust)/ Chairman and Managing Director Food Corporation of India Head Office, No.16-20, Barakhamba Lane New Delhi 110 001 The Executive Director (CPF) Food Corporation of India Head Office, 16-20, Barakhamba Lane New Delhi 110 001 The Executive Director (South) Food Corporation of India South Zone No.3, Haddows Road Chennai 600 006 9/10
S. VAIDYANATHAN, J.
and K. RAJASEKAR, J.
cad 21.09.2023 10/10