JUDGMENT

Y.K. Sabharwal, J.-In this petition filed under Article 32 of the Constitution of India challenge is to the constitutionality of paragraph 80(2) of the Employees Provident Fund Scheme, 1952. The effect of the impugned paragraph is that the employees of newspaper industry, for the purposes of provident fund scheme, do not fall in the category of excluded employees despite their pay being above prescribed amount as notified by Government of India from time to time.

2. In order to appreciate the question involved, it is necessary to examine certain provisions of the Employees Provident Funds and Miscellaneous Provisions Act, 1952 (for short, the PF Act ).

3. The PF Act was passed by the Parliament in the year 1952 to, inter alia, provide for the institution of provident fund for employees in factories and other establishments. Sub-section (3) of Section 1, inter alia, provides that the Act applies to every establishment which is a factory engaged in any industry specified in Schedule I and in which twenty or more persons are employed and to any other establishment employing twenty or more persons or class of such establishments which the Central Government may, by notificatio