The duty of the principal employer to provide details of employees' provident fund, the necessity of contractors as parties for adjudicating disputes, and the importance of granting a proper hearing before passing an order.

JUDGMENT :

1. The present Special Civil Application is filed praying for the following reliefs:-

“19(A) Your Lordships may be pleased to issue a writ of mandamus/certiorari or a writ in the nature of mandamus/certiorari, or any other appropriate writ, order or direction, quashing and setting aside the impugned order dated 25.2.2008 passed by the respondent under Section 7 A of the Employees Provident Funds and Miscellaneous Provisions Act, 1952; and be further pleased to remand the matter to the respondent authority and direct the respondent authority to hear afresh and decide the inquiry under Section 7 A of the PF Act, after making the contractors as parties and summoning them and requiring them to produce the relevant materials and records, which are in their exclusive and sole possession;

(B) Pending the hearing and final disposal of the present petition, Your Lordships may be pleased to stay the operation and implementation of the order dated 25.2.2008 passed by the respondent under Section 7 A of the Employees Provident Funds and Miscellaneous Provisions Act, 1952;

(C) An ex-parte ad interim relief in terms of prayer (B) may kindly be granted.”

2. It is the case of the petitioner company that on 11.6.2007 and 12.6.2007, a team from the office of Assistant Provident Fund Commissioner, Surat came to inspect the manufacturing unit of the petitioner at Hazira. Thereafter, on 22.6.2007, the respondent called upon the petitioner company to submit the required documents by 25.6.2007 failing which an inquiry under Section 7(A) of the Employees Provident Funds and Miscellaneous Provisions Act, 1952 [“the Act” for short] would be initiated. Thereafter, vide letter dated 26.6.2007 the petitioner informed the respondent that they had submitted the information/details pertaining to the compliance of the payment of the provident fund in respect of their employees to the inspection team at the time of their visit on 11th and 12th June, 2007. It was further pointed out that there were several contractors who were working with the petitioner company and therefore, it was their responsibility to maintain the books of account in respect of the payment of the provident fund of the employees engaged through the contractors and it was prayed that the respondent may ask such contractors to produce the relevant records which were in their possession. That thereafter notice dated 22.8.2007 came to be issued for an inquiry under Section 7(A) of the Act for the period from April-2005 to March- 2007 regarding the compliance of the employees engaged through the contractors and the petitioner was directed to remain present on 4.9.2007 for the hearing in the said inquiry. That by letter dated 29.8.2007, the petitioner made a request for finalizing the schedule for the inspection at the company’s manufacturing unit so that the concerned contractors for whom the inquiry was initiated could be kept present along with the relevant provident fund records which were in exclusive possession of such contractors with the intention to assist the respondent in the inquiry. Thereafter through several correspondences, the petitioner company produced the list of contractors employed by the petitioner company at its Hazira unit and also requested the respondent authority to summon all the contractors with relevant records. That thereafter on 18.2.2008, the petitioner company produced a list of contractors employed by the petitioner at its Hazira unit who were separately covered under the Act. Thereafter the hearing was adjourned to 25.2.2008 when the petitioner company filed its written representation. Several discrepancies were also pointed out to the respondent with respect to the contractors who the respondent believed had not complied with the provisions of the Act. In order to clarify such a position, it was once again requested by the petitioner company to the respondent authority to issue summons to all the contractors so that the relevant material and provid