EPFO EO/AO 2023 General Ability Test · Question 33 of 120

Correct — D, (d) Industrial Tribunal. Section 7D of the Employees' Provident Funds and Miscellaneous Provisions Act, 1952 was substituted by the Finance Act, 2017 and now reads that the Industrial Tribunal constituted by the Central Government under sub-section (1) of section 7A of the Industrial Disputes Act, 1947 shall be the Tribunal for the purposes of the EPF Act, and shall exercise the jurisdiction, powers and authority conferred on it by or under this Act. That substitution took effect from 26 May 2017, as part of the wholesale tribunal rationalisation carried out by Part XIV of Chapter VI of that Finance Act. So the appellate route now runs: an order under section 7A (determination of moneys due from an employer), section 7B (review), section 7C (determination of escaped amount) or section 14B (damages for default), or a notification under section 1(3), is appealed under section 7-I to the Tribunal — and since 2017 that Tribunal is the Industrial Tribunal. Section 7-O adds the price of appealing: an employer's appeal is not entertained unless he has deposited seventy-five per cent of the amount determined against him under section 7A, subject to the Tribunal's power to reduce or waive that deposit. A note on the printing. The booklet's stem calls the statute the 'Employees’ Provident Fund and Miscellaneous Provisions Act, 1952', in the singular. The Act's own short title uses the plural — Employees' Provident FUNDS and Miscellaneous Provisions Act, 1952. Option (a) has the plural right and the apostrophe missing. Both are reproduced here exactly as the Commission printed them and neither is corrected in the stem or the options.

• (a)Employees Provident Funds Appellate Tribunal — This is the right answer to the question as it stood before 26 May 2017, and it is the whole trap. Under the pre-2017 section 7D the Central Government constituted one or more Appellate Tribunals known as the Employees' Provident Funds Appellate Tribunal, and appeals under section 7-I went there. The Finance Act, 2017 abolished that arrangement and transferred its jurisdiction to the Industrial Tribunal. Anyone revising from a textbook printed before 2017 — and many still in circulation say exactly this — will mark option (a).
• (b)National Tribunal — A National Tribunal is constituted by the Central Government under section 7B of the Industrial Disputes Act, 1947 to adjudicate industrial disputes involving questions of national importance or affecting establishments in more than one State. It is a real body under a real statute, but it has no role under the EPF Act. Note the near-miss with the answer: the EPF Act borrows the tribunal constituted under section 7A of the Industrial Disputes Act, not the one under section 7B.
• (c)Labour Appellate Tribunal — The Labour Appellate Tribunal was a body created by the Industrial Disputes (Appellate Tribunal) Act, 1950 and abolished long ago; it has never been the appellate authority under the EPF Act. It is in the option set because the phrase sounds like the sort of body that ought to hear labour appeals, which is precisely the kind of plausible-sounding institution the paper likes to test against actual statutory text.

The EPF & MP Act, 1952 contains its own adjudication chain, and an EPFO officer works inside it daily. At the base, an authorised officer determines under section 7A the amount due from an employer, after an inquiry in which he has the powers of a civil court. Section 7B allows review of that order, section 7C covers amounts that escaped determination, and section 14B allows recovery of damages for default in payment of contributions. Against these an appeal lies under section 7-I to the Tribunal defined by section 7D, on a deposit of seventy-five per cent under section 7-O. Once the dues are final, sections 8B to 8G put them in the hands of a Recovery Officer, who recovers by attachment and sale, arrest, or appointment of a receiver. Determination, appeal, recovery — three links, three sets of sections.

This item is a dated-fact question disguised as a structural one. The Finance Act, 2017 merged and abolished a long list of tribunals across Indian law, and the Employees' Provident Funds Appellate Tribunal was one of the casualties. EPFO asks it because the officer must know which forum an aggrieved employer will be taken to today, not which one existed when the standard commentaries were written. The habit rewarded is checking whether a remembered institution still exists.

• EPF & MP Act, 1952, section 7D — substituted by the Finance Act, 2017 with effect from 26 May 2017; the Industrial Tribunal constituted under section 7A(1) of the Industrial Disputes Act, 1947 is now the Tribunal for the purposes of the EPF Act.
• The Employees' Provident Funds Appellate Tribunal, the earlier appellate body under section 7D, was abolished by that merger.
• Section 7-I — appeals to the Tribunal against a notification under section 1(3) and against orders under sections 7A, 7B, 7C and 14B.
• Section 7-O — an employer's appeal is entertained only on deposit of seventy-five per cent of the amount due under section 7A, which the Tribunal may reduce or waive.
• Section 7A — determination of moneys due from employers, by an officer exercising the powers of a civil court.
• Section 14B — damages recoverable from an employer who defaults in payment of contributions.
• Sections 8B to 8G — recovery of dues through a Recovery Officer once determination is final.
• A National Tribunal is a creature of section 7B of the Industrial Disputes Act, 1947 and has no function under the EPF Act.
• The statutory short title of the Act uses the plural 'Funds'; this booklet's stem prints the singular 'Fund'.

• Answering with the Employees' Provident Funds Appellate Tribunal from a pre-2017 textbook.
• Confusing the Industrial Tribunal (Industrial Disputes Act, section 7A) with the National Tribunal (section 7B) — the EPF Act borrows the first.
• Reading the section number '7A' in the EPF Act and in the Industrial Disputes Act as the same provision. They are different sections of different statutes, and both appear in this answer.
• Assuming an appeal can be filed without payment. Section 7-O requires a seventy-five per cent deposit unless the Tribunal relaxes it.

The EPF Act's institutional questions in EO/AO papers turn on which authority does what — the Central Board, the authorised officer under section 7A, the Tribunal under section 7D, the Recovery Officer under section 8B. Prepare it as an authority-to-section table and note the amendment dates, because this is a statute that has been amended more often than most.

No directly related past PYQ was found.

• practice — not a real PYQ

  An appeal by an employer under section 7-I of the EPF & MP Act, 1952 shall not be entertained unless he has deposited what proportion of the amount due from him as determined under section 7A ?

  • (a)Twenty-five per cent
  • (b)Fifty per cent
  • (c)Seventy-five per cent
  • (d)The whole amount

  Answer(c) Seventy-five per cent

• practice — not a real PYQ

  The jurisdiction of the Employees' Provident Funds Appellate Tribunal was transferred to the Industrial Tribunal by :

  • (a)The Finance Act, 2017
  • (b)The EPF (Amendment) Act, 1996
  • (c)The Code on Social Security, 2020
  • (d)The Industrial Disputes (Amendment) Act, 2010

  Answer(a) The Finance Act, 2017