Factory worker threshold includes supervisory engineering work connected with manufacturing, defeating exemption where the statutory limit is crossed.

A person who supervises and controls manufacturing activity within factory premises may be treated as a worker if the work is connected with the manufacturing process, not merely administrative in nature. Applying the statutory definition under the Factories Act, 1948, the text treats occasional visits by an engineer to oversee production, specifications, standards and quality as relevant work for the factory-worker threshold. Because the assessee admitted nine workers and the engineer was counted as the tenth, the unit fell within the definition of a factory and could not claim exemption from licensing control and duty.

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Issues: Whether an engineer who occasionally visited the premises to supervise production could be treated as a worker for determining whether the unit crossed the statutory threshold of ten workers and, consequently, whether the assessee was entitled to exemption from licensing control and duty.

Analysis: The concept of factory under the Factories Act, 1948 was restored by Notification No. 92/81-C.E. dated 01.04.1981, making the statutory definition in Section 2(m) relevant. The material question was whether ten or more workers were working in the premises with the aid of power. The assessee had admitted the presence of nine workers, and the dispute turned on whether the visiting engineer could be counted as a worker. Applying Section 2(1) of the Factories Act, 1948, the engineer's supervision of manufacturing activity, specification, standard and quality was treated as work connected with the manufacturing process and not merely administrative activity.

Conclusion: The engineer was rightly treated as a worker for the purpose of the statutory threshold, the unit fell within the definition of factory, and the exemption was not available.

Ratio Decidendi: A person engaged in supervising and controlling the manufacturing process within the premises may fall within the statutory definition of worker if the work is connected with the manufacturing process and is relevant to the factory threshold under the Factories Act, 1948.

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