HC upholds revoking of CAMPCO’s exemption from ESI

NT Correspondent

Bengaluru: A division bench of the High Court of Karnataka has upheld the revoking of the exemption granted to The Central Arecanut and Cocoa Marketing and Processing Co-op Ltd (CAMPCO) from Employees State Insurance (ESI). The court said that a social welfare scheme like ESI cannot be given a pass, and all establishments have to follow it.

CAMPCO had filed an appeal in 2013 against the order of a single-judge bench. Justice Alok Aradhe and Justice S Vishwajith Shetty gave their judgment on November 2, 2022. CAMPCO, a co-operative limited, submitted an application on February 11, 1997, requesting for grant of exemption from the purview of the ESI Act. CAMPCO approached the HC in 1997 which, in 1999, directed the State Government to consider the application in accordance with the law.

The Secretary to the Government, Labour Department, had issued a notification in 1999 granting exemption from 1983 onwards permanently. However, on July 13, 2000, the notification was revoked by the Labour Department.

CAMPCO approached the HC again and a single judge bench quashed the revocation but allowed the State Government to re-do the matter as per law. After an order of attachment for not paying ESI contribution was passed by the Labour Department, CAMOCO came to the HC again.

The Labour Department told the court that there was no provision for giving exemption from the ESI Act. The single-judge bench dismissed CAMPCO’s petition in 2012 which was challenged. The judgment on the appeal came this November after 10 years.

Quoting from the single judge order, the division bench said, “The act is a piece of social welfare legislation and its applicability is in general to all such establishments which are covered under the act.

A statutory provision operates in general. Any authority functioning under the act has to function within the limits of the Act. The authority does not have powers either to ct contrary to the provisions of the statute or to give a go-by to the same.”