Page 11 - DMGT306_MERCANTILE_LAWS_II

Mercantile Laws – II

Notes  pumping oil, water, sewage, or any other substance; or
 generating, transforming or transmitting power; or
 composing types for printing, printing by letter press, lithography, photogravure or
other similar process or book binding; or
 constructing, reconstructing, refitting, finishing or breaking up ships or vessels; or
 preserving or storing any article in cold storage.
It was held in State of Bombay v Ali Saheb Kashim Tamboli, [(1995) 2 LLJ 182] that bidi making is a
manufacturing process.
In Ardeshir v Bombay State [AIR 1962 SC 29)] the process carried out in the salt works comes within
the definition of ‘manufacturing process’ in Section 2 (k) inasmuch as salt can be said to have
been manufactured from sea water by the process of treatment and adaptation of sea water into
salt.
In re K. V. V. Sharma [(1950) 1 LLJ 29] conversion of raw films into a finished product was held
to be a manufacturing process. Similarly in New Taj Mahal Cafe Ltd., Managalore v. Inspector of
Factories, Managalore, 1956 1 LLJ 273 the preparation of foodstuffs and other eatable in the kitchen
of a restaurant and use of a refrigerator for treating or adapting any article with a view to its sale
were also held to be manufacturing process.

3. Worker

Section 2 (1) of the Factories Act, 1948 defines a “worker” to mean:
A person employed, directly or through any agency (including a contractor) with or without
knowledge of principal employer, whether for remuneration or not, in any manufacturing
process, or in cleaning any part of the machinery or premises used for a manufacturing process
or in any other kind of work incidental to, or connected with, the manufacturing process, or the
subject of the manufacturing process but does not include any member of the armed forces of the
union.
Broadly speaking, therefore, worker is a person:
 who is employed;

 who is employed either directly or through any agency;
 who is employed in any manufacturing process, or in clearing any part of the machinery
or premises used for a manufacturing process or in any other kind of work incidental to,
or connected with the manufacturing process or the subject of the manufacturing process.
If the aforesaid conditions are satisfied, then it is immaterial whether a person was employed
for remuneration or not.

In Chintaman Rao v. State of Madhya Pradesh,[AIR 1958 All 41] the factory entered into contracts
with independent contractors known as sattedars. The sattedars were supplied tobacco by the
factories and, in some cases, bidi leaves also. The sattedars were neither bound to work in the
factory nor were they bound to prepare the bidis themselves but could get them prepared by
others. In fact they engaged coolies for rolling bidis and made payments to them. They used to
collect bidis from these coolies and take them to the factory where the bidis were sorted and
checked by the workers of the factory. The factory made payments to the sattedars for work of
rolling bidis. The Supreme Court gave the restricted meaning to words “directly or through any
agency” in Section 2(l) and held that (i) worker was a person employed by the management and
(ii) there must be a contract of service and a relationship of master and servant between them.

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