Appeal
1644 of 1966
Appeal by special leave from the judgment and order dated January 18 1966 of the Allahabad High Court in Civil Revision Application 24 of 1966
V A Sevid Muhammad and section P Nayar for the appellant
section C Agarwal R K Garg D P Singh and section Chakravarty
for respondents Nos 1 to 28 and 30 to 57
727 The Judgment of the Court was delivered by Dua J
This appeal by special leave is directed against the order of a learned Single Judge of the Allahabad High Court affirming on revision under section 115 Civil PC the order of the learned Additional District Judge Jhansi who had allowed the respondent s appeal from the order of the learned City Magistrate Jhansi made on an application presented by the respondents under section 15 of the IV of 1936
The City Magistrate was the  authority appointed under section 15 and the district court was the court of appeal under section 17 of the said Act
The respondents through the Assistant Secretary of the National Railway Mazdoor Union Work shop Branch Jhansi had asserted in their application under section 15 that they were workers within the meaning of section 21 of the 63 of 1948 and complained that they were denied wages for overtime work done by them on the erroneous ground that they were not workers within the aforesaid provision
The learned Magistrate held that the respondents had been entrusted with purely clerical duties and they were not connected in any manner with the manufacturing process
On this conclusion their application was dismissed
On appeal the learned Additional District Judge disagreed with this view and came to the conclusion that the work done by the respondents was incidental to or connected with the manufacturing process
It was observed in the order that some of the respondents were entrusted with the duty of checking the time work of each worker in the workshop a few others were timekeepers and the remaining respondents prepared account sheets on the basis of the time sheets and did other work incidental to the running of the work shop including payment of wages to the staff of the workshop and the office
The High Court on revision as already observed affirmed the order of the learned Additional District Judge
On appeal in this Court the short question we are called upon to decide is whether the respondents who are time keepers fall within the purview of the definition of worker as contained in section 2 1 of the 
The respondents have raised a preliminary objection that the appeal is incompetent on the ground that respondent No 29 T A Kolalkar had died after the order of the High Court but his name continued to appear in the array of respondents
As his legal representatives had not been brought on the record the appeal against him is incompetent and since there was a joint application on behalf of all the respondents which was dealt with and decided by a common order by the learned Magistrate the appeal against the other respondents must also be held to be incompetent
The impugned order having become final as the 728 deceased T A Kolalkar the present appeal against other respondents should according to the argument be held to be incompetent because the reversal of the impugned order as against them would give rise to conflicting decisions on the point
Recently this Court disalloweda similar objection in Indian Oxygen Ltd vs Shri Rani Adhar Singhand others1 and when the attention of the respondent s learned counsel was drawn to that decision the objection was not seriously pressed
We now turn to the merits of the appeal
The word worker is defined in section 21 of the to mean a person employed directly or through any agency whether for wages or not in any manufacturing process or in cleaning any part of the machinery or premises used for a manufacturing process or in any other kind of work incidental to or connected with the manufacturing process or the subject of the manufacturing process
 This definition seems to us to be fairly wide because it takes within its sweep not only persons employed in any manu facturing process but also in cleaning any part of the machinery or premises used for a manufacturing process and goes far beyond the direct connection with the manufacturing process by extending it to other kinds of work which may either be incidental to or connected with not only the manufacturing process itself but also the subject of the manufacturing process
The word  manufacturing process is defined in section 2k of the in fairly wide language
It means any process for  i making altering repairing ornamenting finishing packing oiling washing cleaning breaking up demolishing or otherwise treating or adapting any article or substance with a view to its use sale transport delivery or disposal or ii pumping oil water or sewage or iii generating transforming or transmitting power or iv composing types for printing by letter press lithography photogravure or other similar process or book binding v constructing reconstructing repairing refitting finishing or breaking up ships or vessels Now the conclusion of the learned Additional District Judge on the nature of work of the respondents which in our opinion 1 Civil Appeal No 1444 of 1966 decided on 24th Sept 1968
729 being one of fact must be held to be binding on the High Court on revision and also not open to reassessment on the merits in this Court on special leave appeal from the order of the High Court on revision is that the time keepers prepare the pay sheets of the workshop staff maintain leave account dispose of settlement cases and maintain records for statistical purposes
Fourteen of the respondents according to this conclusion are timekeepers who maintain attendance of the staff job card particulars of the various jobs under operation and time sheets of the staff working on various shops dealing with the production of Railway spare parts and repairs etc
Four of the respondents are head time keepers entrusted with the task of supervising the work of other respondents
The question arises if on this conclusion it can be held that as a matter of law the respondents fall outside the definition of worker as contemplated by section 2 1 of the and that the High Court erred in dismissing the revision
The appellant s learned counsel has submitted that the expression incidental to or connected with connotes a direct connection with the manufacturing process and therefore if the duties assigned to the respondents have no such direct connection with the manufacturing process then they cannot fall within the purview of the word worker
In support of his submission lie has referred to some law dictionaries
In Law Lexicon in British India by Ramanathan Iyer incidental power is stated to be power that is directly and immediately appropriate to the existence of the specific power granted and not one that has a slight or remote relation to it
The word incidental in the expression incidental labour as used in Mechanic s Lien Statutes allowing liens for work and labour performed in the construction repairs etc
of a building etc
is stated in this Law Lexicon to mean labour directly done for and connected with or actually incorporated in the building or improvement  service indirectly or remotely associated with the construction work is not covered by this expression
Reference has next been made by the counsel to the Law Dictionary by Ballentine where also the expression incidental power is stated in the same terms
In Stroud s Judicial Dictionary the meaning of the words incident and incidental as used in various English statutes have been noticed
We do not think they can be of much assistance to us
The decision in Haydon vs Taylor1 noticed in this book at first sight appeared to us to be of some relevance but on going through it we do not find it to be of much help in construing the statutory provisions with which we are concerned
Similarly the decision in Frederick Hayes Whymper vs John Jones Harney2 seems to be of little guidance
1  2 730 On behalf of the respondents our attention has been drawn to a decision of this Court
in Nagpur Electric Light and Power Co Ltd V Regional Director Employees State Insurance Corporation Etc1
This decision deals with the Employees State Insurance Act and on a comparison of the definition of the word employee as contained in section 29 of that Act with the definition of the word worker in section 2 1 of the  it is observed That the former definition is wider than the latter
It is further added that the benefit of the does not extend to field workers working outside the factory whereas the benefit of the Employees State Insurance Act extends inter alia to the em ployees mentioned in section 2 9 i whether working inside the factory or establishment or elsewhere
Reliance has however been Placed on behalf of the respondents on the observations at page 99 of the report where reference is made to the clerks entrusted with the duty of time keeping and it is observed that all these employees are employed in connection with the work of the factory
A person doing non manual work has been held in this case to be included in the word employee within the meaning of section 2 9 i if employed in connection with the work of the factory
The ratio of this decision which is concerned with the construc tion of different statutory language intended to serve a different object and purpose is of no direct assistance in construing the definition of the word worker as used in the 
The respondents  counsel has then submitted that the previous history of the Act throws helpful light on the legislative intendment and in this connection he has referred to the definition of the word worker in the XXV of 1934
The word Worker in section 2 h of that Act was defined to mean  a person employed whether for wages or not in any manufacturing process or in cleaning any part of the machinery or premises used for a manufacturing process or in any other kind of work whatsoever incidental to or connected with the manufacturing process or connected with the subject of the manufacturing process but does not include any person solely employed in a clerical capacity in any room or place where no manufacturing process is being carried on
 It is argued that the deletion of the words conveying exclu sion of persons solely employed in a clerical capacity in a place where no manufacturing process is carried on suggests that the present definition of worker is wide enough to take within its fold even those persons who are employed solely in clerical capacity if otherwise they fall within the definition
The appellant counsel has on his part by reference to tile definition in the Act 1 731 of 1934 argued that the deletion of the word whatsoever after  any other kind of work is indicative of the legislative intention to restrict the scope of any other kind of work in the current Act
The was enacted to consolidate and amend the law regulating labour in factories
It is probably true that all legislation in a welfare state is enacted with the object of promoting general welfare but certain types of enactments are more responsive to some urgent social demands and also have more immediate and visible impact on social vices by operating more directly to achieve social reforms
The enactments with which we are concerned in our view belong to this category and there 
fore demand an interpretation liberal enough to achieve the legislative purpose without doing violence to the language
The definition of worker in the  therefore does not seem to us to exclude those employees who are entrusted solely with clerical duties if they otherwise fall within the definition of the word worker
Keeping in view the duties and functions of the respondents as found by the learned Additional District Judge we are unable to find anything legally wrong with the view taken by the High Court that they fall within the definition of the word worker
Deletion of the word whatsoever on which the appellant s counsel has placed reliance does not seem to make much difference because that word was in our view redundant
We have not been persuaded to hold that the High Court was in error in affirming the decision of the learned Additional District Judge
In the result this appeal fails and is dismissed with costs
RKPS Appeal dismissed


Summary:
In an application under section 15 of the the respondents claimed that they were workers within the meaning of section 21 of the 
The Additional District Judge found that some of the respondents were time keepers who maintained attendance of the staff
job card particulars of the various jobs under operation and the time sheets of the staff working on various shops dealing with the production of Railway spare parts and repairs etc
and that other respondents were head time keepers entrusted with the task of supervising the work of other respondents
He therefore came to the conclusion that the work done by the respondents was incidental to or connected with the manufacturing process
The High Court in revision affirmed this order
On the question whether the respondents fell within the purview of the definition of worker in section 21 of the 
HELD  ii The conclusion of the Additional District Judge on the nature of the work of the respondents being one of fact must be held to be binding on the High Court on revision and also not open to reassessment on the merits in this Court on special leave appeal from the order of the High Court
ii The definition in section 21 is fairly wide because it takes within its sweep not only persons employed in manufacturing process but also in cleaning any part of the machinery or premises used for a manufacturing process and goes far beyond the direct connection with the manufacturing process by extending it to other kinds of work which may either be incidental to or connected with not only the manufacturing process itself but also the subject of the manufacturing process
The definition therefore does not exclude those employees who were entrusted solely with clerical duties if they otherwise fell within the definition of the word  worker
All legislation in a welfare state is enacted with the object of promoting general welfare but certain types of enactments are more responsive to some urgent social demands and also have more immediate and visible impact on social vices by operating more directly to achieve social reforms
The belongs to this category and therefore
demands an interpretation liberal enough to achieve the legislative purpose without doing violence to the language
728 C D 731 B D