INDIAN CABLE COMPANY LIMITED Vs. UNION OF INDIA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The question raised in this writ petition is whether the40 employees engaged in the commercial establishment of Delhi who sellthe product of principal factory at Jamshedpure, are covered by EmployeesState Insurance Act. It is an admitted facts that the principal manufacturingfactory of the petitioner is at Jamshedpure and the bulk of the employeesnumbering about 3,000 are working there. The petitioners have commercialestablishments in other cities including Pune and Calcutta After 1978, thepetitioner-company has made the Employees State Insurance Act applicableto all its manufacturing or commercial establishments. The dispute is, therefore only limited to a period between 1968 to 1978. Following the decision ofSupreme Court in Hyderabad Asbestos Cement Products Ltd. v. EmployeesInsurance Court and Anr., 1978 L.I.C. 307, it is clear that the employees of thethe petitioner outside Bihar are also to be treated as employees of the principalfactory at Jamshedpure, Bihar. In The Tata Oil Mills Ltd., Ernakulam v.The Employees State Insurance- Corporation, 1978 L.I.C. 585, the DivisionBench of the Kerala High Court has held that employees are to be treated asemployees of a factory to which they are principally connected in their activities. Following these two decisions, the employees working at Delhi are to betreated as employees of the Jamshedpur factory for the purposes of the presentenactment. It is an admitted fact that neither the State of Bihar nor theCentral Government has extended the application of the said Act to Jamshedpur factory pursuant to Section 1(3) and (5) of the Act and the employees atJamshedpure factory which forms the bulk of the total establishment are notcovered by the Employees State Insurance Act.

(2.) We, therefore, hold that the Employees at Delhi are not coveredby the Employees' State Insurances Act. Consequently, the demand noticesbetween 1968 to 1978 with regard to Delhi employees are hereby quashed.

(3.) The Rule is made absolute. The writ petition is allowed withcosts. Counsel's fee Rs. 1.000.00.