IN THE HIGH COURT OF JUDICATURE AT PATNA CWJC No.6453 of 2003 ZILA PARISHAD KARAMCHARI SANGH Versus THE STATE OF BIHAR & ORS ----------- 9. 15.05.2008 The petitioner which is a representative Association of the employees of the erstwhile Zila Parishad of Bhagalpur now bifurcated and part of Zila Parishad Banka is before this Court with a claim for payment of the contributory provident fund dues of its members deducted from their salary for the period April 1991 to September 1998. Some of them are stated to have superannuated also. A counter affidavit has been filed on behalf of respondents 4 and 5. The contents of the counter affidavit reveal an unfortunate and sorry state of affair. It explicitly acknowledges that notwithstanding deductions having been made from the salary for the contributory provident fund the funds were diverted to other purposes for reasons of paucity of funds. A supplementary counter affidavit has been filed on behalf of respondents 4 and 5. It states that a sum of Rs. 8,67,519/- has been sent by cheque dated 11.4.2008 to the Deputy Development Commissioner cum Chief Executive Officer of the Zila Parishad at Banka for depositing in the respective provident fund accounts of the employees with up to date interest up to June 2007. The counter affidavit is silent with regard to the period of claim in question admitted in the counter affidavit from April 1991 to September 1998. Even the interest is paid only up to June 2007. On the face of the admitted materials the matter is very serious making the authorities amenable to criminal prosecution also. However, at this stage, the Court refrains from proceeding with that aspect of the matter in view of the submissions made in the counter affidavit that certain sums of money had been sent to the Zila Parishad for payment. The writ application is disposed off with a direction to the respondents to pay all arrears of the deductions made from the date of deduction till the date of actual payment along with statutory interest within a maximum period of four months from the date of receipt and/or production of a copy of this order. In the event of failure of the respondents to do so the petitioners shall be at liberty to institute appropriate criminal prosecution against them both under the Penal Code as also under the law governing contributory provident fund deductions. Snkumar/- (Navin Sinha,J.)