EMPLOYEES STATE INSURANCE CORPORATION OF INDIA BLORE Vs. ASSOCIATED CEMENT COMPANIES LTD

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The Division Bench consisting of Venkataswami & Range Gowda, JJ. has referred the following question of law for the opinion of the Full Bench.

(2.) Therefore, we move down to Sec 2(9)(ii) Here again, the language used is extensive and diffusive imaginatively embracing all possible alternatives of employment by or through "an independent employer. In such leases, 'the principal employer' has no direct employment relationship since the 'immediate employer' of the employee concerned is some one else. Even so such an employee, if he works, (a) on the premises of the establishment, or (b) under the supervision of the principal employer or his agent "on work which is ordinarily part of the work of the establishment or which is preliminary to the work carried on in or incidental to the purpose of the establishment", qualifies under Sec.2(9)(ii). The plurality of persons engaged in various activities who are brought into the definitional net is wide and considerable and all that is necessary is that the employee be on the premises or be under the supervision of the principal employer or his agent. Assuming that the last part of Sec. 2(9)(ii) qualifies both these categories, all that is needed to satisfy that requirement is that the work done by the employee must be, (a) such as is ordinarily (not "necessarily non-statutorily) part of the work of the establishment, or (b) which is merely preliminary to the work carried on in the establishment, or (c) is just incidental to the purpose of the establishment.

(3.) No one can seriously say that a canteen or cycle stand or cinema magazine booth is not even incidental to the purpose of the theatre. The cinema goers ordinarily find such work an advantage, a facility, an amenity and sometimes a necessity. All that the statute requires is that the work should not be irrelevant to the purpose of the establishment. It is sufficient if it is incidental to it. A thing is incidental to another if it merely appertains to something else as primary. Surely, such work should not be extraneous or contrary to the purpose of the establishment but need not be integral to it either. Much depends on time and place, habits and appetites, ordinary expectations and social circumstances. In our view, clearly the two operations in the present case, namely, keeping a cycle stand and running a canteen "are incidental or adjuncts to the primary purpose of the theatre."