The central legal point established in the judgment is that the office of a lawyer or a firm of lawyers is not considered a 'commercial establishment' under the Kerala Shops and Commercial Establishments Act, 1960.

1. The question which arises for consideration in this appeal is whether a firm of lawyers is a'commercial establishment' within the meaning of the Kerala Shops and Commercial Establishments Act, 1960 (referred to herein as 'the Act').

2. The appellant, V. Sasidharan, was working as a clerk in a firm of lawyers which is respondent 1 to this appeal. Respondents 2,3 and 4 are partners of the firm. The services of the appellant were terminated by the firm on February, 3, 1977 whereupon he preferred an appeal to the Appellate Authority under the Act. A preliminary objection was raised in that appeal by the firm on the ground that it was not a commercial establishment. By a judgment dated August 11, 1977. the Appellate Authority upheld the preliminary objection and dismissed the appeal.

3. Being aggrieved by that judgment, the appellant filed a writ petition (OP. No. 3380 of 1977-B) in the High Court of Kerala. A learned single judge of the High Court dismissed that writ petition, against which the appellant filed a Letters Patent Appeal (W.A No. 11 of 1978). That appeal was dismissed on July 26, 1978 (reported in 1978 Lab IC. 1614). This appeal by special leave is filed against the judgment of the Division Bench of the Kerala High Court.

4. The decision of the question whether respondent 1 firm is a commercial establishment, must naturally depend upon the definition of that expression and the definitions of cognate expressions which are contained in the Act.

5. S.2(4) of the Act defines "commercial establishments" as follows:

"Commercial establishment" means a commercial or industrial or trading or banking or insurance establishment, an establishment or administrative service in which the persons employed are mainly engaged in office work, hotel, restaurant, or boarding or eating house, cafe or any other refreshment house, a theatre or any other place of public amusement or entertainment and includes such other establishment as the Government may, by notification in the Gazette declare to be a commercial establishment for the purposes of this Act, but does not include a factory to which all or any of the provisions of the Factories Act, 1948 (Central Act 63 of 1948) apply."

6. S.2(8) defines "establishment" to mean a shop or a commercial establishment. S.2(15) defines "shop"as follows:

"Shop" means any premises where any trade or business is carried on or where services are rendered to customers, and includes offices, store rooms, godowns or warehouses, whether in the same premises or otherwise, used in connection with such trade or business but does not include a commercial establishment or a shop attached to a factory where the persons employed in the shop are allowed the benefits provided for workers under the Factories Act. 1948 (Central Act 63 of 1948)."

It is on the basis of these definitions that we shall have to decide whether the office of a lawyer or of a firm of lawyers is a commercial establishment within the meaning of the Act.

7. The definition contained in S.2(4) may be simplified by restating it in separate clauses as follows: (1) Commercial Establishment means five different kinds of establishments: commercial, industrial, trading, banking or insurance;- (2) Commercial Establishment means an establishment or administrative service in which the persons employed are mainly engaged in office work: (3) Commercial Establishment means a hotel, restaurant, boarding or eating house, a cafe or any other refreshment house; (4) Commercial Establishment means a theatre or any other place of public amusement or entertainment; and (5) Commercial Establishment includes such other establishment as the Government may, by notification in the Gazette, declare to be a commercial establishment for the purposes of the Act. Commercial Establishment does not include a factory to which any of the provisions of the Factories Act, 1948 apply.

8. A lawyer's office or the office of a firm of lawyers cannot obviously fall under Clauses (3)