2. (1) In this Code, unless the context otherwise requires,—
(a) “adolescent” shall have the same meaning as assigned to it in clause (i)
of section 2 of the Child and Adolescent Labour (Prohibition and Regulation)
Act, 1986;
(b) “adult” means a person who has completed his eighteenth years of age;
(c) “agent” when used in relation to a mine, means every person, whether
appointed as such or not, who, acting or purporting to act on behalf of the owner,
takes part in the management, control, supervision or direction of such mine or of
any part thereof;
(d) “appropriate Government” means—
(i) in relation to an establishment carried on by or under the authority
of the Central Government or the establishment of,  railways, mines, oil
field, major ports, air transport service, telecommunication, banking and
insurance company or a corporation or other authority established by a
Central Act or a central public sector undertaking or subsidiary companies
set up by the central public sector undertakings or autonomous bodies
owned or controlled by the Central Government, including establishment of
contractors for the purposes of such establishment, corporation or other
authority, central public sector undertakings, subsidiary companies or
autonomous bodies, as the case may be, the Central Government; and
(ii) in relation to any factory, motor transport undertaking, plantation,
newspaper establishment and establishment relating to beedi and cigar
including the establishments not specified in clause (i), the State
Government of a State in which it or, as the case may be, they are situated;
(e) “audio-visual production” means audio-visual produced in wholly or
partly in India including animation, cartoon depiction and audio-visual
advertisement including digital production or any of the activities in respect of
making thereof;
(f) “audio-visual worker” means a person, who is employed, directly or
through any contractor, in or in connection with the audio-visual production to
work as an artiste including actor, musician, singer, anchor, news reader or dancer
or to do any work, skilled, unskilled, manual, supervisory, technical, artistic or
otherwise, and his remuneration with respect to such employment in or in
connection with the production of audio-visual does not exceed, where
remuneration is by way of monthly wages or where such remuneration is by way
of lump sum, in each case, the amount notified in this regard by the Central
Government;
(g) “building or other construction work” means the construction, alteration,
repair, maintenance or demolition in relation to buildings, streets, roads, railways,
80 of 1976.
Definitions.
61 of 1986.
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tramways, airfields, irrigation, drainage, embankment and navigation works, flood
control works (including storm water drainage works), generation, transmission
and distribution of power, water works (including channels for distribution of
water), oil and gas installations, electric lines, internet towers, wireless, radio,
television, telephone, telegraph and overseas communications, dams, canals,
reservoirs, watercourses, tunnels, bridges, viaducts, aqua-ducts, pipelines,
towers, cooling towers, transmission towers and such other work as may be
specified in this behalf by the Central Government, by notification, but does not
include any building or other construction work of any factory or mine or any
building or other construction work employing less than ten workers or any
building or other construction work related to residential property not employing
the workers more than such number as may be notified by the Central Government
from time to time;
(h) “building worker” means a person who is employed to do any skilled,
semi-skilled or unskilled, manual, technical or clerical work for hire or reward,
whether the terms of such employment are express or implied, in connection with
any building or other construction work, but does not include any such
person who is employed mainly in a managerial or supervisory or administrative
capacity;
(i) “cargo” includes anything carried or to be carried in a ship or other
vessel, or vehicle;
(j) “Chief Inspector-cum-Facilitator” means a Chief Inspector-cum-Facilitator
appointed under sub-section (3) of section 34;
(k) “competent authority” means any authority notified by the appropriate
Government to perform all or any of the functions of the competent authority
under this Code and for such areas as may be specified in the notification;
(l) “competent person”, means a person or an institution recognised as
such by the Chief Inspector-cum-Facilitator for the purposes of carrying out
tests, examinations and inspections required to be done in an establishment having
regard to—
(i) the qualifications and experience of the person and facilities
available at his disposal; or
(ii) the qualifications and experience of the persons employed in such
institution and facilities available therein:
Provided that in case of mines the competent person includes such
other person who is authorised by the manager referred to in section 64 to
supervise or perform any work, or to supervise the operation of machinery,
plant or equipment and is responsible for such duties assigned to him and
also includes a shot firer or blaster;
(m) “contract labour” means a worker who shall be deemed to be employed
in or in connection with the work of an establishment when he is hired in or in
connection with such work by or through a contractor, with or without the
knowledge of the principal employer and includes inter-State migrant worker but
does not include a worker (other than part time employee) who is regularly
employed by the contractor for any activity of his establishment and his
employment is governed by mutually accepted standards of the conditions of
employment (including engagement on permanent basis), and gets periodical
increment in the pay, social security coverage and other welfare benefits in
accordance with the law for the time being in force in such employment;
(n) “contractor”, in relation to an establishment, means a person, who—
(i) undertakes to produce a given result for the establishment, other
than a mere supply of goods or articles of manufacture to such establishment,
through contract labour; or
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(ii) supplies contract labour for any work of the establishment as
mere human resource and includes a sub-contractor;
(o) “controlled industry” means any industry the control of which has been
transferred to the Union by any Central Act in the public interest;
(p) “day” means a period of twenty-four hours beginning at mid-night;
(q) “District Magistrate”, in relation to any mine, means the District
Magistrate or the Deputy Commissioner, as the case may be, who is vested with
the executive powers of maintaining law and order in the revenue district in which
the mine is situated:
Provided that in case of a mine, which is situated partly in one district and
partly in another, the District Magistrate for the purpose shall be the District
Magistrate authorised in this behalf by the Central Government;
(r) “dock work” means any work in or within the vicinity of any port in
connection with, or required, for, or incidental to, the loading,
unloading, movement or storage of cargoes into or from ship or other vessel,
port, dock, storage place or landing place, and includes—
(i) work in connection with the preparation of ships or other vessels
for receipt or discharge of cargoes or leaving port; and
(ii) all repairing and maintenance processes connected with any hold,
tank structure or lifting machinery or any other storage area on board the
ship or in the docks;
(iii) chipping, painting or cleaning of any hold, tank, structure or
lifting machinery or any other storage area in board the ship or in the docks;
(s) “employee” means,—
(i) in respect of an establishment, a person (other than an apprentice
engaged under the Apprentices Act, 1961) employed on wages by an
establishment to do any skilled, semi-skilled, unskilled, manual, operational,
supervisory, managerial, administrative, technical or clerical work for hire
or reward, whether the terms of employment be express or implied; and
(ii) a person declared to be an employee by the appropriate
Government,
but does not include any member of the Armed Forces of the Union:
Provided that notwithstanding anything contained in this clause, in case of
a mine a person is said to be “employed” in a mine who works as the manager or
who works under appointment by the owner, agent or manager of the mine or with
the knowledge of the manager, whether for wages or not—
(a) in any mining operation (including the concomitant operations of
handling and transport of minerals up to the point of dispatch and of
gathering sand and transport thereof to the mine);
(b) in operations or services relating to the development of the mine
including construction of plant therein but excluding construction of
buildings, roads, wells and any building work not directly connected with
any existing or future mining operations;
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52 of 1961.
5
(c) in operating, servicing, maintaining or repairing any part of any
machinery used in or about the mine;
(d) in operations, within the premises of the mine, of loading for
dispatch of minerals;
(e) in any office of mine;
(f) in any welfare, health, sanitary or conservancy services required to
be provided under this Code relating to mine, or watch and ward, within the
premises of the mine excluding residential area; or
(g) in any kind of work whatsoever which is preparatory or incidental
to, or connected with, mining operations;
(t) “employer” means a person who employs, whether directly or through
any person, or on his behalf, or on behalf of any person, one or more employees
in his establishment and where the establishment is carried on by any department
of the Central Government or State Government, the authority specified, by the
head of such department, in this behalf or where no authority, is so specified, the
head of the department and in relation to an establishment carried on by a local
authority, the Chief Executive of that authority, and includes,—
(i) in relation to an establishment which is a factory, the occupier of
the factory;
(ii) in relation to mine, the owner of the mine or agent or manager
referred to in section 64;
(iii) in relation to any other establishment, the person who, or the
authority which has ultimate control over the affairs of the establishment
and where said affairs are entrusted to a manager or managing director,
such manager or managing director; and
(iv) contractor; and
(v) legal representative of a deceased employer;
(u) “establishment” means—
(i) a place where any industry, trade, business, manufacture or
occupation is carried on in which ten or more workers are employed; or
(ii) a factory, motor transport undertaking, newspaper establishment,
audio-video production, building and other construction work or plantation,
in which ten or more workers are employed; or
(iii) a mine or dock work;
(v) “factory” means any premises including the precincts thereof—
(i) whereon ten or more workers are working, or were working on any
day of the preceding twelve months, and in any part of which a
manufacturing process is being carried on with the aid of power, or is
ordinarily so carried on; or
(ii) whereon twenty or more workers are working, or were working on
any day of the preceding twelve months, and in any part of which a
manufacturing process is being carried on without the aid of power, or is
ordinarily so carried on,
but does not include a mine, or a mobile unit belonging to the armed forces
of the Union, railways running shed or a hotel, restaurant or eating place.
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Explanation I.—For computing the number of workers for the
purposes of this clause all the workers in (different groups and relays) a
day shall be taken into account;
Explanation II.—For the purposes of this clause, the mere fact that
an Electronic Data Processing Unit or a Computer Unit is installed in any
premises or part thereof, shall not be construed as factory if no
manufacturing process is being carried on in such premises or part thereof;
(w) “family”, when used in relation to a worker, means—
(i) spouse,
(ii) children including adopted children of the worker who are dependent
upon him and have not completed the age of eighteen years, and
(iii) parents, grand-parents and widow sister, dependent upon such
worker.
Explanation.—For the purposes of this clause, such dependents shall
not be included who are, for the time being, getting such income from such
sources, as may be prescribed by appropriate Government;
(x) “godown” means any warehouse or other place, by whatever name called,
used for the storage of any article or substance required for any manufacturing
process which means any process for, or incidental to, making, finishing or packing
or otherwise treating any article or substance with a view to its use, sale, transport,
delivery or disposal as finished products;
(y) “hazardous process” means any process or activity in relation to an
industry specified in the First Schedule where, unless special care is taken, raw
materials used therein or the intermediate or finished products, bye-products,
hazardous substances, wastes or effluents thereof would—
(i) cause material impairment to the health of the persons engaged in
or connected therewith, or
(ii) result in the pollution of the general environment;
(z) “hazardous substance” means any substance or such quantity of the
substance as may be prescribed by appropriate Government or preparation of
which by reason of its chemical or physio-chemical properties or handling is
liable to cause physical or health hazards to human being or may cause harm to
other living creatures, plants, micro-organisms, property or the environment;
(za) “industrial premises” means any place or premises (not being a private
dwelling house), including the precincts thereof, in which or in any part of which
any industry, trade, business, occupation or manufacturing is being ordinarily
carried on with or without the aid of power and includes a godown attached
thereto;
(zb) “industry” means any systematic activity carried on by co-operation
between an employer and worker (whether such worker is employed by such
employer directly or by or through any agency, including a contractor) for the
production, supply or distribution of goods or services with a view to satisfy
human wants or wishes (not being wants or wishes which are merely spiritual or
religious in nature), whether or not,—
(i) any capital has been invested for the purpose of carrying on such
activity; or
(ii) such activity is carried on with a motive to make any gain or
profit;
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but does not include—
(a) any activity of the Government relatable to the sovereign functions of
the Government including all the activities carried on by the departments of the
Central Government dealing with defence research, atomic energy and space;
and
(b) any domestic service;
(zc) “Inspector-cum-facilitator” means an Inspector-cum-facilitator
appointed under sub-section (1) of section 34;
(zd) “inter-State migrant worker” means any person who is recruited by—
(i) an employer in one State for employment in his establishment
situated in another State; or
(ii) through a contractor in one State for employment in an
establishment in another State,
under an agreement or other arrangement for such employment and draws wages
not exceeding the amount notified by the Central Government from time to time;
(ze) “machinery” means any article or combination of articles assembled,
arranged or connected and which is used or intended to be used for converting
any form of energy to performing work, or which is used or intended to be used,
whether incidental thereto or not, for developing, receiving, storing, containing,
confining, transforming, transmitting, transferring or controlling any form of
energy;
(zf) “manufacturing process” 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, sewage or any other substance; or
(iii) generating, transforming or transmitting power; or
(iv) composing, printing, printing by letter press, lithography, offset,
photogravure screen printing, 3 or 4 Dimensional printing, prototyping,
flexography or other types of printing process or book binding; or
(v) constructing, reconstructing, repairing, refitting, finishing, or
breaking up ships or vessels; or
(vi) preserving or storing any article in cold storage; or
(vii) such other processes as the Central Government may notify;
(zg) “medical officer” means the medical officer appointed under
sub-section (1) of section 42;
(zh) “mine” means any excavation where any operation for the purpose of
searching for or obtaining minerals has been or is being carried on and includes—
(i) all borings, bore holes, oil wells and accessory crude conditioning
plants, including the pipe conveying mineral oil within the oilfields;
(ii) all shafts, in or adjacent to and belonging to a mine, whether in the
course of being sunk or not;
(iii) all levels and inclined planes in the course of being driven;
(iv) all open cast workings;
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(v) all conveyors or aerial ropeways provided for the bringing into or
removal from a mine of minerals or other articles or for the removal of refuse
therefrom;
(vi) all adits, levels, planes, machinery, works, railways, tramways and
sidings in or adjacent to and belonging to a mine;
(vii) all protective works being carried out in or adjacent to a mine;
(viii) all workshops and stores situated within the precincts of a mine
and under the same management and used primarily for the purposes
connected with that mine or a number of mines under the same management;
(ix) all power stations, transformer sub-stations, converter stations,
rectifier stations and accumulator storage stations for supplying electricity
solely or mainly for the purpose of working the mine or a number of mines
under the same management;
(x) any premises for the time being used for depositing sand or other
material for use in a mine or for depositing refuse from a mine or in which
any operations in connection with such sand refuse or other material is
being carried on, being premises exclusively occupied by the owner of the
mine;
(xi) any premises in or adjacent to and belonging to a mine or which
any process ancillary to the getting, dressing or preparation for sale of
minerals or coke is being carried on;
(xii) a mine owned by the Government;
(zi) “minerals” means all substances which can be obtained from the earth
by mining, digging, drilling, dredging, hydraulicing, quarrying, or by any other
operation and includes mineral oils (such as natural gas and petroleum);
(zj) “motor transport undertaking” means a motor transport undertaking
employing motor transport worker and engaged in carrying passengers or goods
or both by road for hire or reward, and includes a private carrier;
(zk) “motor transport worker” means a person who is employed in a motor
transport undertaking directly or through an agency, whether for wages or not, to
work in a professional capacity on a transport vehicle or to attend the duties in
connection with the arrival, departure, loading or unloading of such transport
vehicle and includes a driver, conductor, cleaner, station staff, line checking staff,
booking clerk, cash clerk, depot clerk, time-keeper, watchman or attendant, but
does not include any such person—
(i) who is employed in a factory;
(ii) to whom the provisions of any law for the time being in force
regulating the conditions of service of persons employed in shops or
commercial establishments apply;
(zl) “newspaper” means any printed periodical work containing public news
or comments on public news and includes such other class of printed periodical
work as may, from time to time, be notified in this behalf by the Central Government;
(zm) “newspaper establishment” means an establishment under the control
of any person or body of persons, whether incorporated or not, for the production
or publication of one or more newspapers or for conducting any news agency or
syndicate and includes the following newspaper establishments which shall be
deemed to be one establishment, namely:—
(a) two or more newspaper establishments under common control;
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(b) two or more newspaper establishments owned by an individual
and his or her spouse unless it is shown that such spouse is a sole proprietor
or partner or a shareholder of a corporate body on the basis of his or her
own individual funds;
(c) two or more newspaper establishments publishing newspapers
bearing the same or similar title and in the same language in any place in
India or bearing the same or similar title but in different languages in the
same State or Union territory.
Explanation 1.—For the purposes of sub-clause (a) two or more
establishments shall be deemed to be under common control where—
(A) (i) the newspaper establishments are owned by a common
individual or individuals;
(ii) the newspaper establishments are owned by firms, if such
firms have a substantial number of common partners;
(iii) the newspaper establishments are owned by bodies
corporate, if one body corporate is a subsidiary of the other body
corporate, or both are subsidiaries of a common holding company or
a substantial number of their equity shares are owned by the same
person or group of persons, whether incorporated or not;
(iv) one establishment is owned by a body corporate and the
other is owned by a firm, if a substantial number of partners of the firm
together hold a substantial number of equity shares of the body
corporate;
(v) one is owned by a body corporate and the other is owned by
a firm having bodies corporate as its partners if a substantial number
of equity shares of such bodies corporate are owned, directly or
indirectly, by the same person or group of persons, whether
incorporated or not; or
(B) where there is functional integrality between concerned
newspaper establishments.
Explanation 2.—For the purposes of this clause,—
(i) different departments, branches and centres of
newspaper establishments shall be treated as parts thereof;
(ii) a printing press shall be deemed to be a newspaper
establishment if the principal business thereof is to print
newspaper.
(zn) “notification” means a notification published in  or
the Official Gazette of a State, as the case may be, and the expression “notify”
with its grammatical variation and cognate expressions shall be construed
accordingly;
(zo) “occupier” of a factory means the person who has ultimate control
over the affairs of the factory:
 Provided that—
(i) in the case of a firm or other association of individuals, any
one of the individual partners or members thereof;
(ii) in the case of a company, any one of the directors, except
any independent director within the meaning of sub-section (6) of
section 149 of the Companies Act, 2013;
18 of 2013.
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(iii) in the case of a factory owned or controlled by the Central
Government or any State Government, or any local authority, the
person or persons appointed to manage the affairs of the factory by
the Central Government, the State Government or the local authority
or such other authority as may be prescribed by the Central
Government,
shall be deemed to be the occupier:
Provided further that in the case of a ship which is being repaired, or
on which maintenance work is being carried out, in a dry dock which is
available for hire, the owner of the dock shall be deemed to be the occupier
for all purposes except the matters as may be prescribed by the Central
Government which are directly related to the condition of ship for which the
owner of ship shall be deemed to be the occupier;
(zp) “office of the mine” means an office at the surface of the mine
concerned;
(zq) “open cast working” means a quarry, that is to say, an excavation
where any operation for the purpose of searching for or obtaining minerals has
been or is being carried on, not being a shaft or an excavation which extends
below superjacent ground;
(zr) “ordinarily employed” with reference to any establishment or part
thereof, means the average number of persons employed per day in the
establishment or part thereof during the preceding calendar year obtained by
dividing the number of man days worked by the number of working days excluding
rest days and other non-working days;
(zs) “owner”, in relation to a mine, means any person who is the immediate
proprietor or lessee or occupier of the mine or of any part thereof and in case of
a mine the business whereof is being carried on by a liquidator or receiver, such
liquidator or receiver; but does not include a person who merely receives a royalty,
rent or fine from the mine, or is merely the proprietor of the mine, subject to any
lease grant or licence for the working thereof, or is merely the owner of the soil
and not interested in the minerals of the mine; but any contractor or sub-lessee
for the working of a mine or any part thereof shall be subject to this Code in like
manner as if he were an owner but not so as to exempt the former from any
liability;
(zt) “plantation” means—
(a) any land used or intended to be used for—
(i) growing tea, coffee, rubber, cinchona or cardamom which
admeasures five hectares or more;
(ii) growing any other plant, which admeasures five hectares or
more and in which persons are employed or were employed on any
day of the preceding twelve months, if, after obtaining the approval
of the Central Government, the State Government, by notification, so
directs.
Explanation.—Where any piece of land used for growing any
plant referred to in this sub-clause admeasures less than five hectares
and is contiguous to any other piece of land not being so used, but
capable of being so used, and both such pieces of land are under the
management of the same employer, then, for the purposes of this
sub-clause, the piece of land first mentioned shall be deemed to be a
plantation, if the total area of both such pieces of land admeasures
five hectares or more; and
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(b) any land which the State Government may, by notification,
declares and which is used or intended to be used for growing any
plant referred to in sub-clause (a), notwithstanding that it admeasures
less than five hectares:
Provided that no such declaration shall be made in respect of
such land which admeasures less than five hectares immediately before
the commencement of this Code; and
(c) offices, hospitals, dispensaries, schools and any other
premises used for any purpose connected with any plantation within
the meaning of sub-clause (a) and sub-clause (b); but does not include
factory on the premises;
(zu) “prescribed” means prescribed by rules made by the appropriate
Government, the Central Government or the State Government, as the case may
be, under this Code;
(zv) “principal employer”, where the contract labour is employed or engaged,
means—
(i) in relation to any office or department of the Government or a local
authority, the head of that office or department or such other officer as the
Government or the local authority, may specify in this behalf;
(ii) in a factory, the owner or occupier of the factory and where a
person has been named as the manager of the factory, the person so named;
(iii) in a mine, the owner or agent of the mine;
(iv) in relation to any other establishment, any person responsible for
the supervision and control of the establishment;
(zw) “producer”, in relation to audio-visual production means the person
by whom the arrangements necessary for producing such audio-visual (including
the raising of finances and engaging audio-visual workers for producing
audio-visual) are undertaken;
(zx) “qualified medical practitioner” means a medical practitioner who
possesses any recognised medical qualification as defined in clause (i) of  section 2
of the Indian Medical Council Act, 1956 and who is enrolled on a Indian Medical
register as defined in clause (e) and on a State Medical register as defined in
clause (k) of the said section;
(zy) “relay” means a set of two or more persons carrying out the same kind
of work during different periods of the day and each such period is called a
“shift”;
(zz) “sales promotion employees” means any person by whatever name
called employed or engaged in any establishment for hire or reward to do any
work relating to promotion of sales or business, or both, but does not include any
such person who,—
(i) being employed or engaged in a supervisory capacity, draws wages
exceeding fifteen thousand rupees per mensem or an amount as may be
notified by the Central Government from time to time; or
(ii) is employed or engaged mainly in a managerial or administrative
capacity;
(zza) “Schedule” means the Schedule appended to this Code;
(zzb) “serious bodily injury” means any injury which involves, or in all
probability will involve, the permanent loss of any part or section of a body or the
102 of 1956.
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use of any part or section of a body, or the permanent loss of or injury to the sight
or hearing or any permanent physical incapacity or the fracture of any bone or
one or more joints or bones of any phalanges of hand or foot;
(zzc) “standards”, “regulations”, “rules”, “bye-laws” and “orders”
respectively means standards, regulations, rules, bye-laws and orders made under
this Code;
(zzd) “week” means a period of seven days beginning at midnight on
Saturday night or such other night as may be approved in writing for a particular
area by the Chief  Inspector-cum-Facilitator;
(zze) “worker” means any person employed in any industry to do any manual,
unskilled, skilled, technical, operational, clerical or supervisory work for hire or
reward, whether the terms of employment be express or implied, and includes
working journalists and sales promotion employees, but does not include any
such person—
(i) who is subject to the Air Force Act, 1950, or the Army Act, 1950, or
the Navy Act, 1957; or
(ii) who is employed in the police service or as an officer or other
employee of a prison; or
(iii) who is employed mainly in a managerial or administrative
capacity; or
(iv) who is employed in a supervisory capacity drawing wage of
exceeding fifteen thousand rupees per month or an amount as may be
notified by the Central Government from time to time;
(zzf) “Working Journalist” means a person whose principal avocation is
that of a journalist and who is employed as such, either whole-time or part-time,
in, or in relation to, one or more newspaper establishment, or other establishment
relating to any electronic media such as newspaper or radio or like other media
and includes an editor, a leader-writer, news editor, sub-editor, feature-writer,
copy-tester, reporter, correspondent, cartoonist, news-photographer and proof-
reader, but does not include any such person who is employed mainly in a
managerial, supervisory or administrative capacity;
(2) For the purposes of this Code, a person working or employed in or in connection
with mine is said to be working or employed—
(a) “above ground” if he is working in an open cast working or in any other
manner not specified in clause (b); and
(b) “below ground” if he is working or employed—
(i) in a shaft which has been or is in the course being sunk; or
(ii) in any excavation which extends below superjacent ground.
CHAPTER II
REGISTRATION