The petitioner herein is an establishment which is subjected to the Employees' Provident Funds and Miscellaneous Provisions Act, 1952 (hereinafter referred to as 'the Act'). The establishment, it is said, was originally known as M/s. N. Balasubramaniam, which was allegedly closed on January 4, 1981 and restarted on April 13, 1981, under a new management. According to the petitioner at the alleged closure, M/s. N. Balasubramaniam paid off and settled all their employees and some of the employees who sought settlement of their provident fund accounts with the respondent. Ex. employees of M/s. N. Balasubramaniam, however, were appointed by the petitioner from April 13, 1981 under new account numbers for the provident fund contributions. The respondent, however, maintained that the transfer of the establishment to the petitioner did not make it a new establishment altogether for the purposes of recovery of the contributions as per law and the petitioner, in view of the same, made remittances for the period April, 1981 to September, 1981 in November, 1981 and February, 1982 to the old account number of the previous owners M/s. N. Balasubramaniam, By a communication, however,