RAJA RAM KUMAR BHARGAWA Vs. STATE

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The applicant, Raja Ram Kumar Bhargava is the 'occupier' of a factory known as the Upper India Couper Paper Mills Company Limited, Lucknow. He was prosecuted for an offence, punishable under Section 92, Factories Act (63 of 1948) for contravention of the provisions of Section 54 of the same Act. Section 54, Factories Act is in these terms :

(2.) The case for the prosecution was that, on 12-4-1950, an Inspector of Factories discovered that, on 18-2-1950, five persons were 'allowed' to work in the factory, of which the applicant is the occupier, for more than nine hours.

(3.) Learned counsel for the applicant opened his arguments with reference to a letter from the Chief Inspector of Factories, Uttar Pradesh, addressed to the District Magistrate of Lucknow, which is not on the record of the case before me but which has been filed in a connected case, pending in the Court of the City Magistrate of Lucknow. A copy of the letter should have been placed on the record of the case if the applicant intended to rely upon it. However, in order to appreciate the arguments advanced on behalf of the applicant, and in view of the importance of the question raised before me, I have seen the letter and consider it worthwhile to quote it 'in extenso.' Its contents are as follows :