ORDER :

1. Leave granted.

2. The appellant before this Court is a Company which has a factory presently engaged in the manufacturing of coffee as also its blending and packing and is known as Hindustan Unilever Limited. The question before this Court is whether appellant is liable to make its contribution under the Employees State Insurance Act, 1948 (hereinafter called "the ESI Act") or not?

3. Mr.V.Giri, learned Senior Counsel for the appellant would claim exclusion from the purview of the ESI Act on the ground that it is a seasonal factory since it is a factory engaged in the manufacture of coffee. The appellant relied upon sub-section (4) of Section 1 of the ESI Act which reads as under:

"(4) It shall apply, in the first instance, to all factories (including factories belonging to the Government other than seasonal factories:

[Provided that nothing contained in this sub-section shall apply to a factory or establishment belonging to or under the control of the Government whose employees are otherwise in receipt of benefits substantially similar or superior to the benefits provided under this Act]."

Mr. Giri, learned Senior Counsel then relied upon Section 2 (19A) of the ESI Act. He would then argue that a seasonal factory as defined under Section 2 (19A) of the ESI Act, includes a factory which is manufacturing coffee.

4. Initially, the definition of factory and seasonal factory as given in Section 2 (12) of the ESI Act read as under: -

"2 (12) "factory" means any premises including the precincts thereof whereon twenty or more persons are employed or were employed on any day of the preceding twelve months, and in any part of which a manufacturing process is being carried on with the aid of power or is ordinarily so carried on but does not include a mine subject to the operation of the Kines Act, 1952, or a railway running shed : 'seasonal factory' means a factory which is exclusively engaged in one or more of the following manufacturing processes, namely, cotton, ginning, cotton or jute pressing, decortication of groundnuts, the manufacture of coffee, indigo, lac, rubber, sugar (including gur) or tea or any manufacturing process which is incidental to or connected with any of the aforesaid processes."

5. An amendment has been brought in the year 1966 and the following was included in the definition clause i.e. in Section 2 (12). What is included by the said Amendment Act of 44 of 1966 reads as under:

"...and includes a factory which is engaged for a period not exceeding seven months in a year-

(a) in any process of blending, packing or re-packing of tea or coffee; or

(b) in such other manufacturing process as the Central Government may, by notification in the Official Gazette, specify";

6. A further amendment was brought in the year 1989 and now the definition of seasonal factory under Section 2 (12) has been transposed bodily to Section 2 (19A) of the ESI Act and the definition is in pari materia to the amendment of 1966. Section 2 (19A) which defines seasonal factory, reads as under:

"2(19A) seasonal factory", means a factory which is exclusively engaged in one or more of the following manufacturing processes, namely, cotton ginning, cotton or jute pressing, decortication of groundnuts, the manufacture of coffee, indigo, lac, rubber, sugar (including gur) or tea or any manufacturing process which is incidental to or connected with any of the aforesaid processes and includes a factory which is engaged for a period not exceeding seven months in a year -

(a) in any process of blending, packing or re-packing of tea or coffee; or

(b) in such other manufacturing process as the Central Go