'CR'

The petitioner is a partnership firm conducting a hotel at Chengannur represented by its Managing Partner. According to the petitioner he is conducting a Hotel and Bar in the same premises. He has a number of permanent employees under him working in various capacities as cooks, waiters, cleaning personnel, persons who do the house keeping work and so on. The petitioner's establishment is engaged in conducting a Hotel and Bar that does not require the services of headload workers. Nor does his establishment undertake any loading and unloading work in a regular manner. Occasionally, provisions are brought to his establishment or bottles of liquor are supplied, which are all unloaded by his permanent employees as part of their regular duties. In fact, the petitioner's case is that his permanent employees attend to whatever loading or unloading work that may occasionally arise in his hotel, as part of their normal duties. Therefore, he is not an 'employer' as defined by the Kerala Headload Workers Act, 1978. Nor is the said Act applicable to him or his establishment.

2. In spite of the above, the second respondent issued Ext.P1 notice to him under the Kerala Headload Wo