STATE OF MAHARASHTRA Vs. L C PATEL

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This is an appeal by the State against the order of acquittal passed in Summary Case No. 3712 of 1957 on the file of the Judicial Magistrate, First Class, 8th Court, Ahmedabad, against the respondent who was the accused in that case and was charged under S. 21(1)(iv)(b) of the factories Act, 1948. The case against the accused was that he being the Manager of the Jubilee Mills, a factory as defined by S. 2 (m) (I) of the Factories Act, 1948, failed to securely fence the shaft and pulleys of the carding department of the said factory which formed part of the transmission machinery and thereby contravened the provisions of S. 21(1)(iv)(b)of the Factories Act and committed an offence punishable under S. 92 of the said Act.

(2.) In the last week of March 1957 some carding machines in the carding department of the said Mills were being shifted to some other place during the recess time from 11 a.m. to 11-30 a.m. when the machinery was not in motion. The carding machine No. 108 had been stopped working since 29-3-1957 as it was to be shifted on 30-3-1957. The belt of the said machine was lying idle on the hanger which was over 12' above the ground level. The pulley which was to be shifted was also 12' above the ground level. Below the hanger there was a steam pipe which was about 7'-3" from the ground level. Instructions had been issued to do the work of shifting only during the recess when the shaft and pulleys were not in motion. About two or three munutes before the recess on 30-3-1957 one workman named Gulab Punja placed a ladder against the steam pipe, climbed the ladder and sat on the steam pipe when the shaft and pulleys were in motion and in breach of the said instructions he stood up on the steam pipe and attempted to take the belt which was lying idle on the hanger on the other side of the shaft and the pulley and in doing so he was entangled in the belt and the moving shaft. He was taken out from the shaft by cutting the belt and removed to the Civil Hospital where he died within half an hour.

(3.) Sub-section (1) of S. 21 of the Factories Act provides as under: