N E MERCHANT Vs. STATE OF MAHARASHTRA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This is a revision from an order of conviction and sentence passed by the Honorary Presidency Magistrate (Municipal Bench), Bombay, under S. 52 (a) read with S. 7 (2) (2-A) of the Bombay Shops and Establishments Act, 1948. The applicants are chartered accountants carrying on their business in the name Messrs. N. E. Merchant and Co. Both of them are qualified chartered accountants entitled to practise as such in their own right.

(2.) One Narayan Mahadeo Malik who is the Inspector in the Shops and Establishments Department of the Bombay Municipal Corporation visited the establishment of the applicants on 15-7-1965 and found the following contraventions of the Act, viz., the Bombay Shops and Establishments Act, 1948.

(3.) Section 7 of the Act is found in Chapter II dealing with Registration of Establishments and requires the employer of every establishment to send to the Inspector of the local area concerned a statement in a prescribed form together with a fee for obtaining a registration certificate. The applicants contend that they do not come within the definition of either the word "employer" or "establishment" as defined in the Act, and hence there could be no contravention of any of the provisions of S. 7.