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It has been alleged by the workers that while the theater was closed for the past decade, the management was deducting their ESI contributions without remitting the funds to the state insurance corporation.
The Supreme Court on Thursday, December 14, suspended the six months of imprisonment awarded to actress and former Member of Parliament Jayaprada in a Employee State Insurance Corporation case.
"As the petitioners have deposited the amount of contribution in terms of the impugned judgments of the Trial Court, the substantive sentence of the petitioners shall remain suspended", a bench of Justices Abhay S Oka and Pankaj Mithal has ordered.
Jaya Prada, a partner at Jayaprada Cinema, was sentence to a six-month imprisonment in a petition filed by the theater workers, alleging non-payment of their ESI contributions.
Senior Advocate Sonia Mathur, appearing for the former MP, stated before Court that the petitioners had deposited a sum of Rs.9,80,000/- (Rupees Nine Lakhs and Eighty Thousand).
In this backdrop, top court said that prima facie, the Sessions Court could not have invoked sub-Section (3) of Section 389 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973.
The bench went on to issue notice in the criminal appeal, making it returnable on 19th February, 2024.
Advocates Praveen Arya, Nachiketa Vajpayee and Divyangna Malik, who also appeared on behalf of Jayaprada, contended that the conviction order passed by the Ld. Trial Court in Chennai, in the cases relating to contribution towards Employee State Insurance Corporation, suffers from patent infirmities and her sentence of six months shall be suspended during the pendency of her appeal against the conviction, currently pending before the Ld. Sessions Judge, Chennai.
Case Title: M/S JAYAPRADHA CINE THEATRE & ANR. ETC. vs EMPLOYEES STATE INSURANCE CORPORATION
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