These writ petitions are connected; for the purpose of narrating the facts, it is enough to notice the facts in Writ Petition No. 3238 of 1971. The petitioner is a private limited company having its factory at Madhavaram within the limits of the City of Madras. But it has an independent administrative office at No. 52/53, Jehangir Street, Madras-1. The petitioner’s case is that there are about 67 workers exclusively working in the factory of the petitioner-company and there are a few others numbering about 30 as on date working in the administrative office of the company in the address as above. The respondent as the statutory functionary under the Employees’ State Insurance Act, 1948 was of the view that by reason of the amendment of the word ‘employee’ in section 2 (9) of the Act, the employees of the petitioner, even though working in the administrative office as above, would squarely come within the meaning of the word “employee” as defined in section 2 (9) and therefore the respondent called upon the petitioner to bring in the personnel working in the administrative office also within the purview and mischief of the Act in the matter of the contribution payable by an em