1. By this writ petition, the petitioner is challenging the legality and validity of the notification dated 19.5.2011 issued under section 1(5) of the Employees’ State Insurance Act (in short “the ESI Act”), 1948, whereby the provisions of ESI Act became applicable to educational institutions. The main contention in the petition is that the educational institution is not indulging in manufacturing of any product and it is not covered under the purview of factory, whereas the ESI Act is applicable upon factories. It has further been stated that the educational institutions are running on no profit no loss and by creating an additional burden to the educational institutions to pay contribution against their employees under the ESI Act which create hurdle to provide free education as provided under Article 21A of the Constitution of India.

2. In reply, Shri R. K. Mangal, learned Government Advocate has drawn our attention to the Division Bench decision of Kerala High Court in the case of CBSE School Management Association v. State of Kerala, wherein the same issue regarding applicability of ESI Act on educational institutions by virtue of notification issued under section 1(5) of