TMI Blog1955 (10) TMI 46X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... s within the meaning of Clause (k) (1) of Section 2. 2. The respondent, Ardeshir Hormusji Bhiwandiwala is a partner in the firm of H. M. D. H. Bhiwandiwala and Co. who are occupiers of the Wadia Mahal Salt Works situated at Wadala, Bombay. The complainant in this case is one Mr. Bapat, an Inspector of Factories, and on 18-7-1953 he filed a complaint against the respondent. The gist of the complaint was that the respondent, who was the occupier of the Wadia Mahal Salt Works, which were a factory under Section 2(m), Factories Act, had failed to submit to the Chief Inspector of Factories, Bombay State, an application in Form No. 2 for the registration of the factory and for the grant of a licence as required under Section 6, Factories Act, read with Rule 4 of the Bombay Factories Rules, 1950. The complaint stated that by reason of the abovementioned contravention of the provisions of Section 6, Factories Act read with Rule 4 of the Bombay Factories Rules, the respondent had committed an offence under Section 92, Factories Act. 3. When the case went up first before the learned Chief Presidency Magistrate for trial, he held that as the complaint against the respondent was ma ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... salt-works are situated and where the salt is made were not premises within the meaning of Section 2, Clause (m), Factories Act and that, therefore, also the provisions of the Act would not apply. In dealing with the point whether there was any manufacturing process done in these Salt Works, the learned Magistrate made these observations in para 27 of his judgment: I am of the view that in the preparation of salt by solar evaporation of sea-water, nothing is made, altered, washed, cleaned or broken up in the process. Nothing is treated. No substance or anything is required to be put into the sea water for obtaining salt. Nothing is adapted in the process. It is, therefore, not correct to say that any manufacturing process is involved, and if no manufacturing process is carried on, then there is no factory. He proceeded to elaborate this point when he went on to observe: Sea water or brine is simply taken from the creek into the reservoir through a channel by gravitation only. From the reservoirs it goes into the tapavanis (preliminary evaporating pans); and from tapavanis it goes into the crystallising pans, entirely by gravitation. The water as it comes fro ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... e with which he was charged. 6. For the construction of the term 'premises' in Clause (m) of Section 2, we may with advantage turn to the definition of 'premises' in Section 5, Sub-section (8), Bombay Rents, Hotel and Lodging House Rates Control Act, 1947, Bombay Act, 57 of 1947. The object of the Bombay Act, 57 of 1947 being, amongst other things, to control rents, the Legislature defined 'premises' so as to mean, amongst other things, any land not being used for agricultural purposes and any building or part of a building let separately, with a view obviously to restrain the levy of excessive rents by landlords not only in respect of buildings or parts of buildings, but also in respect of their lands. In enacting that Act, the Legislature took due account of a tendency on the part of a landlord to charge excessive or unreasonable rent in respect of his building or land and thus make profit which the Legislature thought would not be a just and fair profit. On analogous reasoning, it may justly be said that the occupier of a factory, whether the factory is situated in a building or upon an open land, would not be immune from a tendency of making ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... ans at night would need light for their safety and convenience as would those working in buildings need. Clause (3) of Section 17 says that effective provision shall so far as practicable be made for prevention of glare by reflection from a smooth surface. It is common knowledge that the surface of the sea is smooth. It is also common knowledge that when the sun is shining brightly and its rays contact a smooth surface at a particular angle, there is considerable glare. The rays of the sun falling upon the smooth surface of the sea in the middle of the day would give rise to a glare and we cannot be easily persuaded to agree that, while enacting Clause (3) of Section 17, the Legislature, while having regard to the protection of eyes of those working in buildings, would have been callous on the question of protecting the eyes of the workers on salt pans. Section 34 enjoins upon the occupier of a factory an obligation to see that no person shall be employed to lift excessive weights. The Inspector of Factories has deposed that women are employed on Salt Works and the work which they have to do is to lift baskets of salt and carry them. Can we in fairness be asked to agree ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... ion for the grant of annual leave with wages to workers are sections containing provisions for the welfare of the workers and it is impossible to accept Mr. Khambatta's contention --for indeed that would be the contention -- that the Legislature of a welfare State while enacting a piece of welfare legislation for the benefit of labour intended to exclude the workers on salt pans from its purview. I have referred not a section here or a provision there, but to as many as 14 sections of the Act, to show what the scheme of the Act is and, in our opinion, it is only consistent with the scheme that the term premises in Clause (m) of Section 2 must be so construed as to include lands. The words of a statute, when there is doubt about their meaning, are to be understood in the sense in which they best harmonise with the subject of the enactment and the object which the Legislature has in view......whenever a statute or document is to be construed, it must be construed not according to the mere ordinary general meaning of the words, but according to the ordinary meaning of the words as applied to the subject-matter with regard to which they are used. (Maxwell on Interpretati ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... in, or within the precincts of which were removed and in their place the words Premises including the precincts thereof, whereon were substituted. This substitution must have been made with a purpose. Legislature does not do a thing without a purpose, especially when it involves changing the existing words of a statute. In our opinion, the purpose was clearly to include lands in the interpretation of the word 'premises'. The word 'whereon' in Sub-clause (i) of Clause (m) of Section 2 would be singularly inappropriate if the premises meant were only building. In this connection, Mr. Khambatta has drawn our attention to the words and in any part of which which occur in the latter part of Sub-clause (i) of Clause (m). In our view, these words are not inconsistent with premises being inclusive of lands. They mean that a manufacturing process may be carried on in any part of the land upon which a factory may be situated. 9. Mr. Khambatta says that the expression premises including precincts would show that the Legislature in using the word 'premises' intended to exclude lands. Mr. Khambatta says that the word 'precincts' is a relative w ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... ovisions of the Act with which it is not feasible to comply. Such an occupier would not be committing an offence and would not be liable to be punished under the Act if he does not comply with such of the requirements of the Act which it is not practicable for him to comply with. When there may be factories, some of which may be situated in buildings and some on open lands, the Legislature must make all-embracing provisions for the regulation of labour, some of which provisions may apply to both sets of factories and some to the one or other set as the case may be. Where there are factories of more kinds than one, for instance, some situated in buildings and some situated on open lands, it is not necessary and indeed it may not be possible --that all the provisions of the Act must apply to every kind of factory. 11. In support of his contention that the word 'premises' in Clause (m) of Section 2 does not mean and include lands, Mr. Khambatta has invited our attention to Rule 3 of the rules framed under the Act and Form No. 1. Rule 3 says: An application for obtaining previous permission for the site on which the factory is to be situated and for the constructi ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... Khambatta's contention based upon his reading of Rule 3 and Form No. 1. 12. On a matter of construction of the term 'premises' in Clause (m) of Section 2, we may derive guidance from the words premises or building in Sub-clause (bb) of Clause (1) of Section 7 of the Act. If 'premises' under the Act were to mean only buildings, it would scarcely be appropriate to use the words premises or building in Sub- clause (bb) of Clause (1) of Section 7. It is true that Sub-clause (bb) was added by the Factories (Amendment) Act, 1954, But by an amendment the Legislature would not in corporate something in the Act which would be inconsistent with or repugnant to the object of the Act. In our view, therefore, the words premises or buildings in Sub-clause (bb) of Clause (1) of Section 7, which Sub-clause was added in the year 1954, would suggest that the term 'premises' in Clause (m) of Section 2 must include lands. 13. In our construction of the term 'premises' in Clause (m) of Section 2, viz. that this term includes lands, we are fortified by the meaning assigned to this term by such eminent authorities as Wharton, Stroud and Burrows. Ac ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... t legislation for the welfare of the labour. That being so, it is only fair and just to construe premises in Clause (m) of Section 2, Factories Act so as to have the same meaning as the Courts have given to this word under the English Acts. 14. Mr. Khambatta has drawn our attention to a decision of this Court in Ganpat Dattu v. Emperor: AIR 1930 Bom 162 (C), in which it was held that the word 'premises' in Section 2, Sub-section (3), Indian Factories Act, 1911, included all premises of a factory together with the compound in which they stood and that the word 'precincts' meant the space enclosed by walls or other boundaries of a place or building. It is to be noted however that the terms which came up for construction in this case were the terms 'premises' and 'precincts' occurring in Section 2, Sub-section (3), Factories Act, 1911, Sub-section (3) of Section 2, Factories Act, 1911, was in these words Factory means any premises 'wherein' or 'within' the precincts of which, on any one day in the year not less than twenty persons are simultaneously employed and steam, water or other mechanical power or electrical power i ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... 2, Factories Act, 1948, means not only buildings, but includes lands as well. 17. Proceeding next to the question of construction of Clause (k) of Section 2, the view which the learned Chief Presidency Magistrate has taken, which is the view which Mr. Khambatta is contending for, is that no manufacturing process is done on these salt works. Mr. Khambatta says: what is done on these salt works is that a sheet of salt water is concerted into a bed of salt by evaporation due to exposure to the rays of the Sun. There is no intervention of human agency; there is no manufacturing process being done on these works, that is, no work is being done by a human hand or by a power machinery. Salt is undoubtedly made, but it is made by nature. Sea water is a gift of nature. Heat from the rays of the Sun is also a bounty of nature. Gravitation by which the sea-water flows into the reservoir is also a natural force. It is true that when the tide is low, a pump has to be worked for drawing the sea-water into the reservoir; but that happens only twice or thrice in a month. For the rest of the days,, that is ordinarily, the tidal water flows into the reservoir and the tide is also a natural ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... onal force -- a natural force -- into the reservoir. But there must be a reservoir before the water could flow into it. From the reservoir the water flows into tapavanis and thence into the crystallisation pans. But before the water could flow in that manner, there must be tapavanis and crystallisation pans. It is the workman who makes and prepares the reservoir, the tapavanis and crystallisation pans, without which salt as made on these works cannot be made even with the best and kindest of nature's intentions. In this context, we are not to forget that when a gravitational force is not available for drawing water from the sea into the reservoir on account of low tide, a pump has to be worked, and that is a power machinery worked by human hand. A crystallisation pan is surrounded on all sides by small embankments and this is done to separate a particular enclosed sheet of water from its immediate environments. These small embankments are also the work of human agency. The scraping out of the salt, the sieving of it for the purpose of grading the salt into crystals of various sizes, packing of it into gunny bags with a view to its transport, delivery or disposal are al ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X
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