Factory status under the Factories Act depends on proper findings on workers, process, and power use in a restaurant kitchen

Preparation of food in a restaurant kitchen can constitute a manufacturing process under the Factories Act, 1948 because it involves making or treating articles for sale, but a restaurant is treated as a factory only when the statutory definitions are satisfied in full. The authorities must identify which persons are workers and determine whether the requisite minimum number is present, depending on whether power is used. Mere storage in a refrigerator does not by itself amount to a manufacturing process, and the use of a refrigerator cannot automatically convert a restaurant into a factory. The finding that the establishment was a factory was therefore unsustainable on the material considered and required fresh determination according to law.

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Issues: Whether restaurants carrying on preparation of food and use of a refrigerator could be treated as a factory under the Factories Act, 1948, and whether the statutory authorities had applied the correct legal tests in holding the establishments to be factories.

Analysis: Preparation of food in a restaurant kitchen was held to amount to a manufacturing process within the meaning of the Factories Act, 1948, because it involved making or otherwise treating articles for sale. But an establishment became a factory only if the statutory requirements were satisfied in full, namely that the persons counted were workers within the statutory definition and that the requisite minimum number was present according to whether power was used. The authorities had counted all employees without deciding which of them were workers and had not determined what manufacturing process, if any, was carried on with the aid of power. Mere storage in a refrigerator did not by itself amount to a manufacturing process, and the use of a refrigerator could not automatically convert a restaurant into a factory. The order therefore rested on an incomplete and incorrect application of the statutory definitions.

Conclusion: The finding that the restaurant was a factory could not be sustained on the material considered, and the impugned order was set aside for fresh determination in accordance with law.

Ratio Decidendi: A restaurant is a factory under the Factories Act, 1948 only if the statutory definitions of manufacturing process, worker, and the requisite minimum number of workers are all satisfied on a proper factual inquiry; the mere presence of food preparation, staff, or a refrigerator is insufficient.

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