Factory status under the Factories Act depends on counting only workers engaged in manufacturing or genuinely incidental work.

Under the Factories Act, 1948, the definition of "manufacturing process" is broad enough to cover work incidental to or connected with manufacture, and "worker" includes persons engaged in such work directly or through an agency. Packing soap cases was treated as incidental to the manufacturing process, so the carpenter doing that work could be counted toward the statutory strength. By contrast, a boy merely holding a paint tin for sign-board painting was outside the manufacturing process and could not be counted. On that basis, the required minimum of twenty workers was not made out and the premises did not qualify as a factory.

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Issues: Whether the soap works was a factory within the meaning of the Factories Act, 1948, and whether the persons found doing packing-related work and holding a paint tin could be counted as workers for satisfying the minimum strength required under the Act.

Analysis: The definition of "manufacturing process" under section 2(k) is wide and includes work incidental to or connected with the process, while section 2(l) defines "worker" broadly to include persons employed directly or through any agency in such process or in work incidental to it. Packing cases for soaps was treated as work incidental to the manufacturing process and the carpenter engaged in that work could be counted as a worker. The boy holding a tin of paint, however, was found to be outside the manufacturing process, as his presence was connected with painting a sign-board and not with work incidental to or connected with manufacture. Without him, the required number of twenty workers was not made out.

Conclusion: The soap works did not qualify as a factory under section 2(m)(ii) of the Factories Act, 1948, and the convictions could not be sustained.

Ratio Decidendi: For the purpose of treating premises as a factory, only persons engaged in manufacturing process or in work genuinely incidental to or connected with it can be counted as workers; persons doing unrelated work outside the manufacturing process cannot be included.

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