Judgment

PATHAK, J.:- This and the connected cases raise the important question whether the workers employed at their homes in the manufacture of beedis are entitled to the benefit of the Employees Provident Funds and Miscellaneous Provisions Act, 1952 and the Schemes framed thereunder.

2. The question for consideration is surrounded by a welter of facts, many of which are disputed through affidavits filed on the record, and it has not been an easy task to pick our way through them to arrive at an intelligent and coherent picture for the purpose of deciding these cases. We propose to take Writ Petitions Nos. 3605 to 3609 of 1978 filed by Messrs. P. M. Patel & Sons and others as the leading group of cases, because the principal arguments on the several points arising in these cases were argued by learned counsel in those writ petitions.

3. The petitioners are engaged in the manufacture and sale of beedis. The labour employed in the manufacture of beedis consists of different categories. At the factory, which constitutes the formal establishment, there is an administrative and clerical staff, accountants, packers, checkers and bhattimen. The work of rolling the beedis itself is done by