- (1.) This Appeal is against an Order dated 25th July, 1997 passed in a Letters Patent Appeal filed by the Appellant.
(2.) Briefly stated the facts are as follows: The Appellant is a Hospital which is part of a Medical College. The Appellant has a department, which is called the Equipment Maintenance Department. This department maintains the equipment in the hospital such as X-ray, ECG and Radiation equipment, kidney dialysis, heart and lung machine, operating table equipment etc. In effect this department, inter alia, repairs the equipment which is being used in the hospital. Admittedly, in this department there are 45 persons working.
(3.) In 1978 the Respondent issued a notice to the Appellant stating that the Equipment Maintenance Department fell within the purview of Section 2(12) of the Employees' State Insurance Act, 1948 (hereinafter referred to as the ESI Act) and that the Appellant should comply with the provisions of the Act with retrospective effect. The Appellant represented that the ESI Act would not apply to the Equipment Maintenance Department, inter alia, on the ground that this department was part and parcel of the Appellant College. The Respondent did not accept this explanation and threatened the Appellant with legal action. The Appellant filed a Petition under Section 75 of the ESI Act before the District Court, Vellore. By a Judgment dated 4th May, 1985 the District Judge held that the Equipment Maintenance Department was not separate and distinct from the Appellant-Hospital and that it was just a limb of the hospital. It was held that the Equipment Maintenance Department was not amenable to the provisions of the ESI Act and that the respondent was not entitled to apply the provisions of the ESI Act or to demand any contribution.;