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PETITIONER:

V. SASIDHARAN

Vs.

RESPONDENT:

PETER & KARUNAKAR & ORS.

DATE OF JUDGMENT23/08/1984

BENCH:

CHANDRACHUD, Y.V. ((CJ)

BENCH:

CHANDRACHUD, Y.V. ((CJ)

TULZAPURKAR, V.D.

CITATION:

1984 AIR 1700 1985 SCR (1) 601

1984 SCC (4) 230 1984 SCALE (2)201

ACT:

Shop & Establishments Act 1960 (Kerela Act). Sec. 2(4)-

Firm of Lawyers Whether a commercial establishment.

HEADNOTE:

The appellant preferred an appeal to the Appellate

Authority under the Kerela Shops and Commercial

Establishments Act, 1960 (For short. the Act) against his

dismissal from service by respondent No. 1, a firm of

Lawyers. Respondent No. 1 raised a preliminary objection

that the appeal was not maintainable since Respondent No. I

firm was not a commercial establishment under the Act. The

Appellate Authority upheld the preliminary objection and

dismissed the appeal. His writ Petition and Letters Patent

Appeal in the High Court against the judgment of the

Appellate Authority were also dismissed. Hence this appeal

by special leave.

Dismissing the appeal,

^

HELD: (I) The question whether respondent No. I-firm is

a commercial establishment must naturally depend upon the

definition of that expression and the definition of cognate

expressions which are contained in the Act. The definition

of "commercial establishment" contained in sec.2(4) of the

Act may be simplified by restating it in separate clauses as

follows: (I) 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 theater 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 Section 2(8)

defines ’establishment’ to mean a shop or a commercial

establishment. The definition of shop contained in sec.

2(15) shows that in order that an establishment can be

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regarded as a shop it is necessary that some trade or

business must be carried on there or some service must be

rendered to ’customers’. The expression ’shop also includes

offices, warehouses. store rooms or godowns which are used

in connection with the trade or business. [30H; 603H, 605A,

D-G].

602

(2) A lawyer’s office or the office of a firm of

lawyers cannot obviously fall under clauses (3) and (4) of

section 2(4). Nor has the Government issued any notification

as contemplated by section 2(4). The question thus narrows

itself into whether a lawyer’s office falls under either of

the first two clauses. Since by the definition contained in

the first clause of section 2(4), a ’commercial

establishment means an establishment, a place of work cannot

be regarded as a commercial establishment unless the

activity is conducted in a ’shop’ or in a commercial

establishment, which is really tautological. Whatever may be

the popular conception regarding the role of today’s lawyers

and the alleged narrowing of the gap between a profession on

one hand and a trade or business on the other, it is trite

that, traditionally, lawyers do not carry on a trade or

business nor do they render services to customers’. The

context as well as the phraseology of the definition in