1. In these appeals the parties are the same and the question involved is also the same. They may therefore be disposed of by a common judgment.

2. We shall now state the facts of the first case. The Provident Fund Inspector, Quilon filed a complaint against the Kerala Janatha Printers and Publishers (P) Ltd., Trivandrum and K. Krishna Pillai, the Managing Director of the above company, alleging that they did not pay the contribution and administrative charges for the months of June, July and August, 1960 under the Employees' Provident Funds Scheme of 1952 and that they were therefore liable for punishment. The said establishment was started on 25th January 1957; and the establishment started employing more than twenty but less than fifty persons a day from May 1960. It is also not disputed that the establishment was brought under the Employees' Provident Funds Act and Scheme framed thereunder from 31st May 1960.

3. The Employees' Provident Funds Act was passed in 1952; and it was amended several times, ultimately by Act 46 of 1960 in December 1960. The accused contended that it was the amended Act that applied to this establishment; and that under the said Act its provis