EMPEROR Vs. JBHJOHNSON

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The facts which have given rise to these appeals are few and undisputed.

(2.) On the 4th of September last at about 11-30 p. m. eighteen persons were found working in the Calico Miils, which is a textile factory,-subject to the provisions of the Indian Factories Act XII of 1911. Eighteen complaints were lodged in respect of the employment of these eighteen persons against the manager of the said factory. The accused pleaded guilty, and he was convicted in all these eighteen cases and sentenced to pay a fine of Rs. 100 in each case. On appeals to the Sessions Court the learned Sessions Judge upheld the conviction in the first of these cases and set aside the convictions and sentences in the remaining seventeen cases. He was of opinion that the offence was one of employment of labour collectively and that it was not a separate offence to employ each person contrary to the provisions of the Act.

(3.) It is in these seventeen cases in which the accused has been acquitted by the Sessions Court, that the present appeals are preferred by the Government of Bombay. The question of law that arises is whether under Section 41 (a) of the Act the offence consists of the employment of labour apart from the number of men employed or whether the offence is complete and separate in respect of each person employed or allowed to work contrary to any of the provisions of the Act.