KAMLAPAT Vs. EMPEROR

JUDGEMENT

(1.) Mr. Kamlapat, owner of a factory in Cawnpore, has been convicted under Section 41(a), Factories Act. The charge is divided into two heads with respect to four workmen Puran, Gopal Singh, Badri and Bhagwat. The first charge is under Section 26, Factories Act, that the manager employed these four men during hours beyond the time fixed for the employment of each person employed in the factory. The second charge is that three of the men Puran, Gopal Singh and Badri were employed in the same factory for more than eleven hours on the particular day about which a report was made by the Chief Inspector of Factories and Boilers.

(2.) The argument here was that these four men were piece workers and not regularly employed and that therefore the provisions of the Act did not apply to them. No ruling was quoted on this subject, so that matter has to be decided on the ordinary interpretation of words in Section 2(2)(d): A person who works in a factory, whether for wages or not, in cleaning or oiling any part of the machinery, or any other kind of work whatsoever, incidental to, or connected with, the manufacturing process or handicraft, or connected with the article made or otherwise the subject of the manufacturing process of handicraft therein, shall be deemed to be employed therein.

(3.) There can be no denying that these four men were winding yarn which was performing a process of handicraft connected with the manufacturing process carried out in the factory and whether they were regular workers per day or according to the work turned out by them they were employed in the factory. The hours of work in the factory as fixed by Mr. Kamlapat were 7 a.m. to noon with a break of one hour and after that from 1 p.m. to 6 p.m. The Chief Inspector found the four men working at 8 minutes past 7 when he went to the factory and presumably because of the astonishing ignorance of law of the men in charge of the factory the work went on till 7-53 p.m. in spite of the presence of the Chief Inspector on the premises. The four men admittedly worked from 6 p.m. to 7-53 p.m., that is during a time which was outside the time fixed by Mr. Kamlapat for the employment of each person employed in his factory. He was guilty under Section 26, with respect to all the four cases.