Employees Provident Fund Organisation & ORS v. Narinder Singla
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"7A. Determination of moneys due from employers.-(1)The Central Provident Fund Commissioner, any Additional Central Provident Fund Commissioner, any Deputy Provident Fund Commissioner, any Regional Provident Fund Commissioner, or any Assistant Provident Fund Commissioner may, by order,- in a case where a dispute arises regarding the applicability of this Act to an establishment, decide such dispute; and determine the amount due from any employer under any provision of this Act, the Scheme or the Pension. Scheme or the Insurance Scheme, as the case may be, and for any of the aforesaid purposes may conduct such inquiry as he may deem necessary.
(2)The officer conducting the inquiry under sub-section (1) shall, for the purposes of such inquiry, have the same powers as are vested in a court under the Code of
Civil Procedure, 1908 (5 of 1908), for trying a suit in respect of the following matters, namely:- enforcing the attendance of any person or examining him on oath; requiring the discovery and production of documents; receiving evidence on affidavit;
issuing commissions for the examination of witnesses, and any such inquiry shall be deemed to be a judicial proceeding within the meaning of sections 193 and 228, and for the purpose of section 196, of the Indian Penal Code (45 of 1860)."
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Conjoint reading of above said provisions i.e., Section 7A and Section 7-I of the EPF Act, make it clear that the authorities as mentioned in Section 7A of the Act are empowered to decide any dispute regarding the applicability of this Act to an establishment. The Act further provides for filing an appeal before the Tribunal under Section 7-I of the Act, if any person is aggrieved by an order passed by any authority, under sub-section
(1) of section 7A.
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"18. Protection of action taken in good faith.-No suit, prosecution or other legal proceeding shall lie against the Central Government, a State Government, the Presiding Officer of a Tribunal, any authority referred to in section 7A, an Inspector or any other person for anything which is in good faith done or intended to be done in pursuance of this Act, the Scheme, the Pension Scheme or the Insurance Scheme."
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1 27.
Section 93 of the Act reads as under:
"93. Corporation officers and servants to be public servants.-All officers and servants of the Corporation shall be deemed to be public servants within the meaning of section 21 of the Indian Penal Code (45 of 1860)."
28.
Thus, as per Section 93 of the Act, all officers and servants of the Corporation shall be deemed to be public servants within the meaning of section 21 of the Indian Penal Code. In these circumstances,
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29.
In State of Haryana and others Vs. Ch. Bhajan Lal and others" 1992 AIR SC 604, Hon'ble Supreme Court has laid down the guidelines as to the cases in which High Court should exercise its extraordinary power to quash the FIR or the complaint under Section 482 Cr.PC. It was held as under:
"8.1.
In the exercise of the extra-ordinary power under Article 226 or the inherent powers under Section 482 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, the following categories of cases are given by way of illustration, wherein such power could be exercised either to prevent abuse of the process of any Court or otherwise to secure the ends of justice, though it may not be possible to lay down any precise, clearly defined and sufficiently channelised and inflexible guide of myriad kinds of cases wherein such power should be exercised: "(a) where the allegations made in the First Information Report or the complaint, even if they are taken at their face value and accepted in their entirety do not prima facie constitute any offence or make out a case against the accused; (b) where the allegations in the First Information Report and other materials, if any, accompanying the F.
I.R.
(e) where the allegations made in the FIR or complaint are so absurd and inherently improbable on the basis of which no prudent person can ever reach a just conclusion that there is sufficient ground for proceeding against the accused; (f) where there is an express legal bar engrafted in any of the provisions of the Code or the concerned Act (under which a criminal proceeding is instituted) to the institution and continuance of the proceedings and/or where there is a specific
provision in the Code or the concerned Act, providing efficacious redress for the grievance of the aggrieved party;
(g) where a criminal proceeding is manifestly attended with mala fide and/or where the proceeding is maliciously instituted with an ulterior motive for wreaking vengeance on the accused and with a view to spite him due to private and personal grudge."
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