THE HONOURABLE SRI JUSTICE RAJA ELANGO CRIMINAL APPEAL No.601 of 2006 17-10-2014 BETWEEN:
M/s.Rohit Service Station And another.
…..Appellants/accused AND Employees State Insurance Corporation, Rep. by its Insurance Inspector (Legal) And another.
…..Respondents THIS COURT MADE THE FOLLOWING JUDGMENT:
THE HONOURABLE SRI JUSTICE RAJA ELANGO CRIMINAL APPEAL No.601 of 2006 JUDGMENT:
The Criminal Appeal is preferred by the appellants/accused challenging the Judgment, dated 22.02.2006, in P.C. No.27 of 2003 passed by the Judicial Magistrate of First Class to try offences under the ESI Act and Chairman, Industrial Tribunal, Hyderabad.
The case of the prosecution is as follows:-
The accused No.2 is the Managing Partner of the accused No.1 firm namely, M/s.Rohit Service Station. The complainant is the Employees’ State Insurance Corporation. Alleging that the accused failed to pay the employees’ share of contribution as well as the employer’s share of contribution for the employees employed in his organization, a show cause notice dated 23.07.2002 was issued calling upon him as to why he should not be prosecuted for non-compliance with the provisions of the Employees State Insurance Act. The accused did not reply to the alleged show cause notice. After following due process of law, the competent authority issued assessment orders calling upon the accused to pay the contributions, which he is liable to pay with interest. It is also alleged that the accused has failed to submit Return of Contribution in Form-6 in quadruplicate to the ESI Corporation. Hence, the complainant Corporation filed P.C.No.27 of 2003 against the accused for the offences under Sections 85(a) and 85(e) of the Employees State Insurance Act.
On behalf of the prosecution, P.Ws.1 and 2 were examined and Exs.P.1 to P.17 were marked. No oral or documentary evidence was adduced on behalf of the accused.
On appreciation of oral and documentary evidence, the trial Court found the appellants/accused guilty for the offences under Section 85(a) of the ESI Act and convicted and sentenced to undergo simple imprisonment for one year and also to pay a fine of Rs.5,000/- (Rupees five thousand only), in default to suffer simple imprisonment for two months. The trial Court also found guilty the appellants/accused for the offence under Section 85(e) of the ESI Act and convicted and sentenced to pay a fine of Rs.4,000/- (Rupees four thousand only) each, in default to suffer simple imprisonment for one month. Out of the fine amount, an amount of Rs.2,000/- (Rupees two thousand only) was ordered to be paid to the complainant Corporation to compensate the costs spent by it to prosecute the case. Aggrieved by the same, the appellants/accused preferred the present criminal appeal.
Heard and perused the material available on record.
After appreciating the evidence and examining the material available on record and considering the respective submissions of the learned Counsel for both the parties, this Court of the view that there are no adequate reasons, warranting interference by this Court with the Judgment passed by the trial Court.
At this stage, the learned Counsel for the appellants/accused submitted that A.2 was the only breadwinner for his family by doing business and as such, a lenient view may be taken while imposing sentence of punishment.
Considering the submission made by the learned Counsel for the appellants/accused and the nature of the offence, and also the matter relates to the year 2003, this Court is inclined to take a lenient view.
In the result, the conviction recorded by the trial Court against the appellants/accused for the offences under Sections 85(a) and 85(e) of the ESI Act is confirmed. However, the sentence of imprisonment imposed by the trial Court for the offence under Sections 85(a) of the ESI Act is modified to the period already undergone by the appellant/accused. The sentence of fine in both counts stand confirmed.
Accordingly, the Criminal Appeal is partly allowed. Consequently, the miscellaneous petitions, if any pending in this appeal, shall stand closed.
JUSTICE RAJA ELANGO 17.10.2014 pln