( 1 ) A criminal prosecution has been initiated under Section 24 of the Contract Labour (Regulation Abolition) Act, 1970 against a Government Company and its Chairman and Managing Director, its Construction Superintendent and its Executive Engineer. The Company and the Officers, but not the Chairman and Managing Director, have moved this Court against the order of issuance of process and have urged that the prosecution ought to be quashed. For the reasons stated hereunder, we decline to do so.

( 2 ) IT has been urged that since the accused company is a Government company whose entire share capital has been subscribed mainly by the Central Government and also by some State Governments, it is very much an instrumentality of the State or the Government and a criminal prosecution against such a one must fail as the State or the Government cannot be criminally prosecuted.

( 3 ) THE Contract Labour (Regulation and Abolition) Act, 1970 does not exclude the State or the Government or any of its instrumentalities from the operation of the Act, either expressly or by necessary implication. The English Common Law doctrine that the Crown is not bound by a Statute sav