Jawahar Lal Gupta, C.J.

1. Does the proviso to S.77(1A)(b) of the Employees' State Insurance Act, 1948 debar the Corporation from making any claim after five years from the date on which it had arisen? This question was answered in the negative by a Division Bench of this Court in Vijayan Pillai v. E.S.I. Corporation (1998 (1) KLT 373). It was held that "by a legal fiction contained in Cl.(b) the cause of action in respect of a claim by the Corporation from the principal employer arises on the date on which the Corporation makes the claim for the first time. The words 'five years of the period to which the claim relates' contained in the said proviso shall not be interpreted to mean that five years of the period in relation to which the amount of contribution is due." The correctness of this view was doubted by a Division Bench. It was observed that "the proviso to Cl.(b) shows that no claim shall be made by the Corporation after five years of the period to which that claim relates". The Bench further observed that "the effect of the proviso is that no claim shall be made by the Corporation after five years of the period to which the claim relates. The period of limitation i