A corporate and a corporate body are inter-changeable and non-use of the word "body corporate" in Cl. (12) of Sec. 21 of the PenaJ Code and will not make a body corporate out of the ambit of the Corporation. So the body corporate will mean a Corporation, under the said clause and an employee of body corporate is a public servant.'

3-C. Appointment of officers.—(I) The Central Government shall appoint a Coal Mines Provident Fund Commissioner, who shall be the Chief Executive Officer of the Board and shall be subject to the general control and superintendence of the Board.

(2) The Central Government may also appoint as many other others, whose minimum monthly salary in the scale of pay (if any) applicable to them is not less than .four hundre4_rupees. as it may consider necessary to assist the Coal Mines Provident Fund Commissioner in the discharge of his duties.

(3) Subject to the provisions of sub-sections (J) and (2), the Board may appoint such other officers and employees as it may consider necessary for the efficient administration of the Coal Mines Provident Fund Scheme 2[, the Coal Mines Family Pension Scheme and the Insurance Scheme].

(4) The method of recruitment, salary and allowances, discipline and other conditions of service of the Coal Mines Provident Fund Commissioner shall be such as may be specified by the Central Government and such salary and allowances shall be paid out of the Fund.

(5) The method of recruitment, salary and allowances, discipline and other conditions of service of other officers and employees of the Board shall be such as may be specified by the Board with the approval of the Central Government.

Coal Mines Provident Fund Commissioner is a public Officer.—The Provident Fund Commissioner holds the office of Commissioner on appointment by Government by virtue of his office. His services are temporarily placed at the disposal of the Board. He does not, therefore, cease to be an officer in the service of the Government. The payment of his pay out of the Fund does not alter his status as Government employee. The Courts below have erred in holding that the Coal Mines Provident Fund Commissioner is not a public officer within the meaning of the term in Sec. 2 (17) (h), C.P.C.3

3-D. Transfer of accounts.—(1) Where any employee who is a subscriber to any provident fund of the coal mine in which he is employed becomes a member of the Fund in accordance with the provisions of any Coal Mines Provident Fund Scheme, the accumulations in the provident fund of the coal mine standing to the credit of the employee shall, notwithstanding anything to the contrary contained in any law for the time being in force qr, in any deed or other instrument establishing the provident fund but subject to the provisions, if any, contained in the Scheme, be transferred, by such person and within such time as may be provided in the Scheme, to the Fund and shall be credited to the account of the employee in the Fund.

(2) Where a member of the Fund leaves his employment in a coal mine and obtains re-employment in any other establishment (not being a coal mine to which the Coal Mines Provident Fund Scheme applies) and becomes a subscriber to any provident fund of that establishment, the amount of accumulations to the credit of such employee in the fund shall be transferred, within such time as may be specified by the Central Government in this behalf, to the credit of his account in the provident fund of the establishment in which he is re-employed, if the employee so desires and the rules in relation to that provident fund permit such transfer.

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