JUDGMENT

VENKATARAMIAH, J. :-—Shri Narakesari Prakashan Ltd. and Nav Samaj Ltd., Nagpur are the appellants in the above two appeals by special leave filed under Article 136 of the Constitution. The appellants respectively are printers and publishers of newpapers known as Tarun Bharat and Nagpur Times. Their case is that their employees working for wages in the administrative and editorial sections of their respective concerns were not employees as defined in Section 2 (9) of the Employees State Insurance Act, 1948 thereinafter referred to as (the Act) prior to November 19, 1976 on which date by a notification issued under S. 1 (5) of the Act the Government of the State of Maharashtra made the Act applicable to the said employees also and that therefore they were not liable to make any contributions under the Act in respect of the said employees up to that date. They however admit their liability to make contributions during that period in respect of persons employed by them for wages in the printing presses belonging to them.

2. The dispute regarding the liability of the appellants to make contributions under the Act in respect of the members of the administrative and editorial staf