Statutory canteen workers may be treated as employees of the principal employer despite contractor engagement.

Workers engaged through a contractor in a canteen maintained under the statutory obligation in Section 46 of the Factories Act, 1948 may be treated as employees of the principal employer, because the canteen forms an integral statutory facility rather than a private arrangement. The interposition of a contractor does not by itself defeat that status, and such workers stand on a different footing from ordinary contract labour. The distinction from abolition of contract labour under Section 10(1) of the Contract Labour Act was recognised. The workers' claim succeeded, the challenge failed, and the High Court's protective directions were left undisturbed.

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Issues: Whether workers engaged through contractors in a canteen maintained under a statutory obligation under the Factories Act, 1948 were entitled to be treated as employees of the principal employer and to seek regularisation of service.

Analysis: The canteen was run to discharge the employer's mandatory obligation under Section 46 of the Factories Act, 1948. The workers were engaged through contractors, but the canteen existed as an integral statutory facility for the factory and not as a mere private arrangement. The legal position recognised in prior decisions was that where the principal employer is statutorily bound to maintain a canteen, contract workers engaged for that canteen stand on a different footing from ordinary contract labour. The Court also noted the distinction between abolition of contract labour under Section 10(1) of the Contract Labour (Regulation and Abolition) Act, 1970 and cases involving a statutory canteen, and held that the latter category supports treatment of such workers as employees of the establishment.

Conclusion: The challenge to the workers' claim failed, and the canteen workers were not denied treatment as employees of the establishment for the purpose considered in the case.

Final Conclusion: The appeal was rejected, and the High Court's protective directions concerning the canteen workers were left undisturbed.

Ratio Decidendi: Where an industrial establishment is under a statutory duty to maintain a canteen, workers engaged for that canteen through a contractor may be treated as employees of the principal employer, and the mere interposition of a contractor does not prevent such treatment.

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