BROOME, J. - (1.) THIS special appeal is directed against an order of A. P. Srivastava, J., dismissing Civil Miscellaneous Writ Petition No. 714 of 1962.
(2.) THE writ petition was filed by the Shree Gopal Paper Mills Limited, which manufactures paper at Yamuna Nagar in the Punjab. Raw material for this paper manufacture is obtained in the shape of bankas grass from the forests of Nepal. The grass is brought to various rail heads, including Nepalganj Road in the district of Bahraich, where it is compressed into bales with the aid of manually operated bailing presses and is then loaded on railway wagons, to be transported to the paper mills at Yamuna Nagar. The Inspector of Factories, U. P., has issued a series of notices to the petitioner, asserting that a "manufacturing process" is being carried on at the Nepalganj Road Dept., and that consequently this depot constitutes a factory within the meaning of Section 2(m)(ii) of the Factories Act 1948. The petitioner has accordingly been required to take out a licence for operating a factory at the place in question.
(3.) THE petitioner sought to have these notices quashed on the ground that the operation of baling the grass carried out at Nepalganj Road did not constitute a "manufacturing process", so as to make the depot a factory within the meaning of the Act. The learned Single Judge, however, has held that the packing of the grass for the purpose of transport by rail comes within the definition of manufacturing process given in Section 2(k)(i) of the Factories Act which runs as follows :- "(k) Manufacturing process means any process for - (i) making, altering, repairing, ornamenting, finishing, packing, oiling, washing, cleaning, breaking up, demolishing, or otherwise treating or adapting any article or substance with a view to its use, sale, transport, delivery or disposal." He has pointed out that bankas grass is undoubtedly an article or substance, that this grass is admittedly packed at the Nepalganj Road Depot and that the packing is done with a view to the transport and use of the grass.;