TaxTMI 
TaxTMI 
1964 (4) TMI 147
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....separate complaints were filed in the Court of the Judicial Magistrate, First Class, Wadhwan City. 2. The defence of the respondent was that he was not the occupier and manager of the factory. It may be pointed out that one Mr. Dangi and the respondent are partners. They have another factory at Dharangadhra and the defence was that Mr. Bhikhalal was manager at the Dharangadhra factory and Mr. Dangi was managers at Wadhwan. Another defence was that a machine had gone out of order the previous day and after it was repaired work was started a little earlier the next day, because production had suffered and goods were required. The Inspector, it was stated, was informed by a letter (Ext. 11) written on the 20th about the change of timing though the letter, unfortunately, did not reach the Inspector till the 22nd. It was admitted that this change in the hours of work was not notified and displayed as required by s. 61(1). It was urged that s. 61(10) permitted a change to be made in the system of work in a factory and as this provision was fully complied with, there was no offence. The Judicial Magistrate did not accept these defences. According to him, Mr. Dangi's letter (Ext. 15....
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.... register directed to be maintained under s. 62. It provides : "S. 63. Hours of work to correspond with notice under section 61 and register under section 62. - No adult worker shall be required or allowed to work in any factory otherwise than in accordance with the notice of periods of work for adults displayed in the factory and the entries made beforehand against his name in the register of adult workers of the factory." 5. Section 61 deals with the notice of periods of work for adults. It is divided into 10 sub-sections of which sub-ss. (1), (2) and (10) alone are relevant here. They are as follows :- "61. Notice of periods of work for adults. - (1) There shall be displayed and correctly maintained in every factory in accordance with the provisions of sub-section (2) of section 108, a notice of periods of work for adults showing clearly for every day the periods doing which adult workers may be required to work. (2) The periods shown in the notice required by sub-section (1) shall be fixed beforehand in accordance with the following provisions of this section, and shall be such that workers working for those periods would not be w....
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....ords are descriptive of the scheme of the employment of labour in the factory but are not apt to contemplate the time of employment for each individual worker. That can only be found by referring to the register which goes with the notice. Sub-s. (1) makes no mention of the change in the register but of the change in the notice and thereby indicates that the change which is contemplated is an overall change affecting a whole group and not an individual worker. The latter part of the sub-section also points in the same direction because it implies that such changes should not be frequent and if the change is for the second time it should not be made until one week has elapsed since the last change. This cannot possibly refer to casual change in the hours of work of an individual worker. 8. The learned counsel sought to justify the action by referring to s. 59 which provides that extra wages for overtime shall be paid. No such claim was made earlier in this case and justification was sought only from the provisions of sub-s (10) of s. 61 and s. 117 of the Act. Section 59 cannot be considered in isolation : It has to be read with s. 64, where the State Government has been given the....
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....agers, foremen, workers etc. Mr. Goswami also refers to two decisions of the Andhra Pradesh High Court in Public Prosecutor v. Mangaldas Thakkar, A.I.R. (1958) AP 79 and In re. P. Lakshmaiah Naidu I.L.R. (1958) AP 925, in which the same view has been expressed. Mr. D. R. Prem on behalf of the State of Gujarat relies on The Public Prosecutor v. Vattem Venkatramayya, (1962) IILLJ 21 AP and Provincial Government, C.P. and Berar v. Seth Chapsi Dhanji Oswal Bhate and Anr. I.L.R. (1940) Nag. 257 = A.I.R. (1938) Nag. 408. Reference was also made to Superintendent and Remembrancer of Legal Affairs, Bengal v. H. E. Watson, AIR1934 Cal 730 . 12. It is not necessary to refer to the lines of reasoning adopted in these cases. The language of this protecting clause is not limited to officers but is made wide to include "any person". It thus gives protection not only to an officer doing or intending to do something in pursuance or execution of this Act but also to "any person". But the critical words are "any thing * * * done or intended to be done" under the Act. The protection conferred can only be claimed by a person who can plead that he was required to do or omit to do something under the....