JUDGMENT - DHABE H.W., J.:—This is a letters patent appeal preferred by the Employees' State Insurance Corporation against the judgment of the learned Single Judge of this Court holding that the Managing Director of the respondent company is not an 'employee' within the meaning of the definition of the said expression given in section 2(9) of the Employees' State Insurance Act, 1948 (for short the ESI Act).

Briefly the facts are that by order dated 23-5-1974 and 1-7-1974, the appellant Corporation made the provisions of the ESI Act applicable to the respondent company on the ground that it had engaged 20 employees in its company and, as such, by virtue of sub-section (4) of section 1 of the ESI Act, the provisions of the said Act were applicable to the said company. The respondent company made an application under sections 75 and 76 of the ESI Act before the Employees' Insurance Court, Nagpur, for decision on the dispute whether the respondent company is a 'factory' within the meaning of section 2(12) of the ESI Act and whether its Managing Director is an 'employee' within the meaning of section 2(9) of the said Act. The appellant Corporation filed its written statement in the case

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