A. Banerji, J. - (1.) THIS is an appeal under Section 82 of the Employees' State Insurance Act, 1948 by M/s Kalpana Kala Kendra, Kanpur, hereinafter referred to as 'the Appellant'. The Appellant has been held to be running a factory as defined in Section 2(12) of the Employees' State Insurance Act, 1948, hereinafter referred to as 'the Act' by the Judge, Employees' Insurance Court, by its order dated 12 -5 -1977, whereby the Appellant was held liable to pay a sum of Rs. 5825 -84 to the Employees' State Insurance Corporation Aggrieved by the above order, the Appellant has come to this Court.
(2.) THE sole question for consideration is whether the Appellant is a factory as defined in Section 2(12) of the Act and is liable to pay the contribution. The relevant facts may be mentioned first. The Appellant is a firm engaged in the preparation of greetings cards etc., for being marketed for sale. According to the Appellant, greetings cards are hand -prepared for which no power is used except manual labour. The firm does not use any 'power' as defined in Section 2(g) of the Factories Act, which is applicable to the Act also by virtue of the provisions of Section 2(12) of the Act. An Inspector of the Employees' State Insurance Corporation, hereinafter referred to as 'the corporation' visited the premises of the firm and submitted a report that it was a factory, as power was being used therein. He also stated that there was 220 Volt AC connection to the premises. A notice was thereafter issued to the firm, which is a proprietary firm run by Shri T.R. Batra. Shri Batra admitted that he had electric connection but electric power was not being used in the process of preparation of greetings cards, which was solely done by hand. The fact that there were more than 20 employees was admitted, but it was stated that the firm was neither a factory as defined in Section 2(12) of the Act nor were the provisions of the Act applicable to the firm and, as such, contribution asked for from the firm was unwarranted.
(3.) THE matter came up before the Judge, Employees" Insurance Court, Kanpur. Shri T.R. Batra was examined on oath. He stated that the greetings cards were being prepared by hand and 'no power was being used'. However, during cross -examination he stated that domestic electric iron or iron using coal were sometimes used. The corporation did not examine any one, not even the Inspector nor filed any documentary evidence in the proceedings before the said Court except the Inspector report and the reply by the proprietor Shri T.R. Batra.;