The Employees Insurance Court (Principal Labour Court), Chennai, has set aside a recovery order of about ₹2.71 crore issued against the Chennai Petroleum Corporation Ltd. (CPCL).
In its petition, CPCL said the recovery order issued in 2007 pertained to third party contractors who had rendered services to the company. It said there were two categories — coded contractors, who were already registered under the Employees State Insurance Corporation (ESIC), and non-coded contractors, who were not registered under ESIC.
On March 13, 2006, ESIC issued a show cause notice to pay the contribution in respect of labour charges paid to non-coded contractors from 2000 to 2005. The company said there was a dispute over the kind of services classified as non-coded, and ESIC declined its request to issue summons to the contractors, it added.
The Court said the ESIC had to issue summons to the contractors for better adjudication of the issue involved in the payment of contribution. It directed the ESIC to determine the contribution afresh after giving reasonable opportunity and dispose of the case within six months.
