I.A. Ansari, J.

1. Considering the fact that all these writ petitions, made under Article 226 of the Constitution of India, have raised common questions of law, based on identical facts, all the writ petitions, on the request made by the learned counsel for the parties concerned, have been heard together and are being disposed of by this common judgment and order. The basic case of the writ petitioners may, in brief, be set out as under :

Ordinarily, in a Tea Estate, though not necessarily in all the Tea Estates, rice and atta are made available by the management of the Tea Estate to their workmen at highly concessional rate. Making of rice and atta so available at concessional rate does not according to the petitioners, form part of the basic wages of the workman concerned/but Regional Provident Fund Commissioner, Agartala, has by his letter, dated 07.11.2009, initiated a proceeding, under Sections 6-A and 6-C of the EPF Act read with paragraph 38 of the Employees Provident Fund Scheme, 1995, in purported exercise of his power under Section 7A of the EPF Act, directing the petitioners to produce certain records for the purpose of holding an enquiry if the petitioners are lia