Equitable adjustment of Employees' State Insurance contributions upheld where long interim orders made past recovery impracticable.

Long-standing interim orders prevented Employees' State Insurance contributions from being deducted or deposited for about 18 years, while the employer provided medical facilities directly and the workmen did not use ESI benefits. On these peculiar facts, the Court treated recovery of past contributions as causing grave hardship, especially because many workmen had already left service or retired and individual recovery would be impracticable. It viewed the direction to begin payment only from the date of judgment as an equitable adjustment rather than an impermissible postponement of enforcement, and upheld the High Court's approach denying past recovery.

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Issues: Whether the High Court was justified in directing that employees and the employer would not be liable to pay Employees' State Insurance contributions for the past period covered by long-standing interim orders, and would commence payment only from the date of the final judgment.

Analysis: The interim orders had operated for about 18 years, during which no contribution was deducted or deposited and the workmen did not avail the Employees' State Insurance facilities. The employer, in compliance with the court orders, provided medical facilities to the workmen on its own. In these peculiar facts, insisting on recovery of past contributions would cause grave hardship, and recovery from individual workmen, many of whom had left service or retired, would be impracticable. The direction to start payment from the date of the judgment did not amount to an impermissible postponement of enforcement of the notification, but was an equitable adjustment based on the admitted circumstances.

Conclusion: The High Court's direction was upheld, and the challenge to the denial of past recovery failed.

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