85. POWER TO APPLY THE ACT TO CERTAIN PREMISES. –
(1) The State Government may, by notification in the Official Gazette, declare that all or any of the provisions of this Act shall apply to any place wherein a manufacturing process is carried on with or without the aid of power or is so ordinarily carried on, notwithstanding that –
(i) the number of persons employed therein is less than ten, if working with the aid of power and less than twenty if working without the aid of power, or
(ii) the persons working therein are not employed by the owner thereof but are working with the permission of, or under agreement with, such owner :
Provided that the manufacturing process is not being carried on by the owner only with the aid of his family.
(2) After a place is so declared, it shall be deemed to be a factory for the purposes of this Act, and the owner shall be deemed to be the occupier, and any person working therein, a worker.
Explanation : For the purposes of this section, owner shall include a lessee or mortgagee with possession of the premises.
Comments
The power exercisable under section 85 of the Act is neither a judicial nor a quasi-judicial power nor is it an administrative function affecting the rights of persons. It is a legislative activity to make the legislative instrument extensively operative by making it applicable to places where the manufacturing is carried on. Such a declaration by notification in the context of section 85 of the Act is legislative in character; Panneerselvam Match Industries v. Government of Tamil nadu, (1998) 92 IFJ 762.
