The Employees Insurance Court has exclusive jurisdiction to decide disputes between the Corporation and the employer under Section 75 of the Employees State Insurance Act, 1948.

Ashok Bhan, J.

1. Employees State Insurance Corporation, defendant-petitioner (hereinafter referred to as "the petitioner"), issued notices to Jalandhar Gymkhana Club, Jalandhar, plaintiff-respondent (hereinafter referred to as the respondent) for submission of a return for making contribution towards Employees State Insurance Fund (for short esi fund ). Plaintiff-respondent filed the present suit alleging that it was a registered society, registered under the Societies Registration Act. It was alleged that the club was not an establishment which was covered under the Act and as such was not liable to file returns or make contributions towards ESI fund and that the notices issued to it were void and illegal. Suit was for permanent injunction restraining the petitioner from recovering the contribution.

2. Petitioner contested the suit and took a preliminary objection that the jurisdiction of the civil court has been specifically barred under Sub-section (3) of Sec.75 of the Act and that all disputes between the parties have to be adjudicated by the Employees Insurance Court in terms of Sec.75 (1) and in particular under Sub-clause (g) of Sec.75 (1 ). On the pleadings of the parties, the following preliminary issue was framed:

"whether the civil court has jurisdiction to try the suit?"

3. The trial court, after considering various arguments advanced before it, came to the following conclusion:

"therefore, as per allegations in the plaint and keeping in view the stand of the defendants in the written statement that the defendants have neither challenged the name of the plaintiffs establishment as a club nor alleged that it is a profit earning body, the stand of the plaintiff can be determined only by the civil court and not by the Employees Insurance Court. Therefore, the civil court has jurisdiction to try the suit and the issue is decided in favour of the plaintiff and against the defendants. "

4. The main reason which weighed with the trial court while taking this view was that the club was a voluntary organisation working on no loss no profit basis, was neither a factory not an establishment declared to be so under Sub-clause (5) of Sec.1 of the Act.

5. I have heard the learned counsel for the parties at length and in my view the trial court has clearly erred in holding that the Civil Court has jurisdiction to decide the matter in dispute. The Employees State Insurance Act, 1948 (hereinafter referred to as "the Act") has been enacted to provide certain benefits to employees in case of sickness, maternity and employment injury and to make provisions for certain other matters in relation thereto. The Act was made applicable in the first instance to all factories other than seasonal factories. Sub-section (5) of Sec.1 provides that the appropriate Government may, in consultation with the Corporation or the State Government, as the case may be, after giving six months notice of its intention of so doing, by notification in the Official Gazette, extend the provisions of this Act or any of them to any other establishment or class of establishments, industrial, commercial, agricultural, or otherwise. By a subsequent notification issued under Sub-section (5) of Sec.1 of the Act, the ESI Act was extended to certain establishments, i. e. , hotels, restaurants, shops, etc. Certain contributions are required to be made by a factory or an establishment to which the Act has been extended under Sub-section (5) of Sec.1 of the Act which is utilised by the Corporation for the benefit of the employees and for other objects given in the reasons and objects clause of the enactment of the Act. "factory" is defined in Sec.2 (12) of the Act as under:

"2. (12) "factory", means any premises including the precincts thereof whereon twenty or more persons are employed or were employed for wages on any day of the preceeding twelve months, and in any part of which a manufacturing process is being carried on with the aid of power or is ordinarily s