RAMESH ENTERPRISES LTD Vs. ESI CORPORATION

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The petitioner seeks for the issuance of Writ of Prohibition, to prohibit the respondents from enforcing the provisions of the Employees' State Insurance Act (In short, 'the ESI Act') against the petitioner.

(2.) The petitioner is having a Factory at Virudhunagar, where raw coffee seeds are cured which involved the process of drying of coffee beans, removing husks, cleaning and grading of coffee seeds. According to the petitioner, it is a factory registered under the provisions of the 'Factories Act'. The petitioner claims exemption from the provisions of the ESI Act by virtue of the definition of 'Seasonal Factory' under Section 2(19A) of the said Act.

(3.) Section 2(19A) of the ESI Act, reads as under: "Section 2. Definitions. 19(A). "Seasonal factory" means a factory which is exclusively engaged in one or more of the following manufacturing process, namely, cotton ginning, cotton or jute pressing, decortication of groundnuts, the manufacture of coffee, indigo, lac, rubber, sugar (including gur) or tea or any manufacturing process which is incidental to or connected with any of the aforesaid process and includes a factory which is engaged for a period not exceeding seven months in a year-