DHANLAKSHMI WEAVING WORKS Vs. UNION OF INDIA UOI

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THE prayers in this writ application are: to declare that

(2.) THERE has been for some time a controversy as to whether the establishment of the partnership-firm of which the petitioner is the managing partner is an establishment that will be governed by the Employees' Provident Funds Act, 1952 (hereinafter referred to as the Act ). Section 1 (3) (a) of the Act states that the Act will apply to every establishment which is a factory engaged In any Industry specified In Sen. I and In which twenty or more persona are employed.

(3.) IT is admitted that the firm of which the petitioner is a managing partner is engaged In an Industry which has been Included In the schedule to the Act, But It is disputed that the petitioner is employing more than twenty persons. In fact It is the case of the petitioner that he is employing only a very few people, much less than twenty. His case la that those who are working In the establishment are Independent contractors and between them and the petitioner there is no employer-and-employee relationship. The contention la that those working In the establishment are not workmen of the petitioner-firm of which the petitioner la the managing partner within the meaning of Section 2 (e) of the Act. Sections 2 (e) and 2 (f) of the Act define employer and employee and ran thus: 2 (e) 'employer' means: