1. The Employees' Provident Fund and Miscellaneous Provisions Act (for. short 'the Act') is a beneficent piece of social welfare legislation intended for the social security of the employees. The Act and Scheme are aimed at being extended to as much employees as possible. That is why S.1 (3)(b) authorised the Central Government to extend the provisions by notification in the Gazette to establishments, the only condition being that the concern should be an establishment and it should employ 20 or more persons. Size of the concern reflected by the number of employees and not the nature of the business transacted there is the criterion. The right to issue notifications bringing more and more establishments within its ambit is there and it will continue so long as the Act is in force. In exercise of the powers the Central Government issued several notifications of which we are concerned only with two. They are the notification of 1964 by which establishment of "Medical Practitioners and Specialists" and the notification of 1973 by which ‘Hospitals' are brought within the purview of the enactment.

2. Plaintiff is the 'Poly Clinic (P) Ltd., Trichur' admittedly an establishment