Government of Kerala issued a notification on 3O.7-1981 declaring the Offices of "Registered Accountants and Auditors" in the State of Kerala to be "Commercial Establishments" for the purposes of the Kerala Shops and Commercial Establishments Act, 1960 (for short 'the Act'). Petitioners in all these Original Petitions, who are practicing Chartered Accountants, challenge the validity of the notification. The officials of the Labor Department, as follow up measure, directed the Chartered Accountants to get their offices registered as establishments under the Act. Some of the petitioners challenged the notification as ultra virus to Article 19(1)(g) of the Constitution. The main attack is on the ground that Government have no power to declare office of a Chartered Accountant as commercial establishment.

2. If the office of a Chartered Accountant is a commercial establishment, its employer is duty bound to make an application for registration certificate in respect of that establishment. The provisions of the Act impose certain restrictions or limitations on an employer who runs the establishment. No employee in an establishment shall be required or allowed to work for more