Factory, a place where a number of traders reside in a foreign country for the convenience of trade; also a building in which goods are manufactured.
In the Factory and Workshop Act, 1901, 'Factory' means by s. 149 'textile factory and non-textile factory, or either of those descriptions of factories.'
The expression 'textile factory' means any premises wherein or within the close or curtilage of which steam, water or other mechanical power is used to move or work any machinery employed in preparing, manufacturing or finishing or in any process incident to the manufacture of cotton, wool, hair, silk, flax, hemp, jute, tow, china-grass, cocoanut fibre or other like material, either separately or mixed together or mixed with any other material, or any fabric made thereof:
Provided that print works, bleaching and dyeing works, lace warehouses, paper mills, flax scutch mills, rope works and hat works shall not be deemed to be textiles factories.
'Tenement factory' means a factory when mechanical power is supplied to different parts of the same building occupied by different persons for the purpose of any manufacturing process or handicraft, in such manner that those parts constitute in law separate factories; and for the purpose of the provisions of this Act with respect to tenement factories, all buildings situate within the same close or curtilage shall be treated as one building. See Mumby v. Valp, (1930) 1 KB 460 (power supplied by third person).
The expression 'non-textile factory' means, by the same s., print works, bleaching and dyeing works, foundries, paper mills, glass works and any other of the twenty kinds of works described in Part I of Schedule VI of the Act.
The (English) Factory and Workshop Act, 1878, which contained 107 s.s and 6 Schedules, consolidated, with a few amendments, the 17 Acts from that of 1802 (42 Geo. 3, c. 73), to 37 & 38 Vict. c. 44 (the Factory Act, 1874), by which the labour of women, young persons, and children had been from time to time regulated, the education of children indirectly attained, and the fencing of machinery prescribed. The (English) Act of 1878 was amended, as to White Lead Factories and Bakehouses, by the Factory and Workshop Act, 1883, as to Cotton Cloth and like humid factories, by the (English) Cotton Cloth Factories Act, 1889, and generally by the Factory and Workshop Act, 1891, which increased the powers of factory inspectors, directed means of escape from fire to be provided, prohibited the employment of children under eleven, and of women within four weeks after childbirth, and enacted that weavers in the cotton, worsted, or woolen, or linen, or jute trade, if paid by the piece, should be entitled to have supplied to them with their work 'sufficient particulars of the rate of wages at which they are entitled to be paid;' and by the (English) Factory and Workshop Act, 1895, which constituted laundries and docks factories for most purposes.
The (English) Factory and Workshop Act, 1901 (1 Edw. 7, c. 22), has effected a second consolidation with further amendments, prohibiting the employment of children under twelve, directing the periodical examination of steam boilers, enabling district councils to make bye-laws as to escape from fire, increasing the powers of the Home Secretary for the regulation of dangerous trades, and conferring on country councils many of the powers which only district councils had before. This Act, which codifies the law on the subject up to 1901, must however, be read in conjunction with the legislation since that date; reference should therefore be made to the (English) Factory and Workshop Act, 1907 (extending to laundries, and charitable and reformatory institutions), the (English) Police, Factories, etc. (Miscellaneous Pro-visions), Act, 1916, Part II., and the (English) Ed-ucation Acts, 1918, s. 14, and 1921, s. 170(13). The (English) Women and Young Persons (Employ-ment in Lead Processes) Act, 1890; (English) Employment of Women, Young Persons, and Children Act, 1920; Lead Paint (Protection against Poisoning) Act, 1926; (English) Factory and Workshop (Cotton Cloth) Factories Act, 1929; (English) Employment of Women and Young Persons Act, 1936. See Consolidating Factories Act, 1937.
The use of steam whistles for summoning or dismissing factory hands requires the sanction of local authorities, by the (English) Steam Whistles Act, 1872 (35 & 36 Vict. c. 61).
From the definition of 'factory' it is clear that it must be a premises where a manufacturing process is carried on, Workmen of Delhi Electric Supply Undertaking v. Management of Delhi Electric Supply Undertaking, AIR 1973 SC 365: (1974) 3 SCC 108.
Department of Publications and Press run by the University is engaged in carrying on a 'manufacturing process' in the printing of text books, journals, forms and other items of stationery comes within the expression 'factory', Osmania University v. Regional Director, Employees' State Insurance Corpn., AIR 1986 SC 466: (1985) 4 SCC 514. [Employees' State Insurance Act, (34 of 1948), s. 2(12)]
'Factory' means any premises including the pre-cincts thereof whereon twenty or more persons are employed or were employed for wages on any day of the preceding twelve months, and in any part of which a manufacturing process is being carried on with the aid of power or is ordinarily so carried on but does not include a mine subject to the operation of the Mines Act, 1952 or a railway running shed, B.M. Lakshmanamurthy v. Employees' State Insurance Corporation, AIR 1974 SC 759: (1974) 4 SCC 365: (1974) 3 SCR 142.
Means a factory as defined in clause (m) of s. 2 (f) of the Factories Act, 1948. (Maternity Benefit Act, 1961, s. 3)
Means a factory as defined in clause (m) of s. 2 (xiiia) of the Factories Act, 1948. [Cantonments Act, 1924 (2 of 1924), s. 2]
Means a factory as defined in clause (m) of s. 2 of the Factories Act, 1948 and includes any place to which the provisions of that Act have been applied under sub-s. (1) of s. 85 thereof. [Payment of Wages Act, 1936 (14 of 1936), s. 2 (ib)]
Means any premises including the precincts thereof--
(i) whereon ten or more workers are working, or were working on any day of the preceding twelve months, and in any part of which a manufacturing process is being carried on with the aid of power, or is ordinarily so carried on, or
(ii) whereon twenty or more workers are working, or were working on any day of the preceding twelve months, and in any part of which a manufacturing process is being carried on without the aid of power, or is ordinarily so carried on,--but does not include a mine subject to the operation of the Mines Act, 1952, or a mobile unit belonging to the armed forces of the Union, railway running shed or a hotel, restaurant or eating place. [Factories Act, 1948 (63 of 1948), s. 2 (m) (i) (ii)]
Means any premises, including the precincts thereof, in any part of which a manufacturing process is being carried on or is ordinarily so carried on, whether with the aid of power or without the aid of power. [Employees' Provident Funds and Miscellaneous Provisions Act, 1952 (19 of 1952), s. 2 (g)]
Means any premises, including the precincts thereof, in any part of which a manufacturing process is being carried on or is ordinarily so carried on--
(i) with the aid of power, provided that fifty or more workers are working or were working thereon on any day of the preceding twelve months, or
(ii) without the aid of power, provided that one hundred or more workers are working or were working thereon any day of the proceeding twelve months and provided further that in no part of such premises any manufacturing process is being carried on with the aid of power. [Industries (Development and Regulation) Act, 1951, s. 3 (c)]
Means any premises, including the precincts thereof, wherein or in any part of which excisable goods other than salt are manufactured, or wherein or in any part of which any manufacturing process connected with the production of these goods is being carried on or is ordinarily carried on. [Central Excise Act, 1944 (1 of 1944), s. 2 (e)]
Shall have the same meaning as in clause (m) of s. 2 of the Factories Act, 1948. [Payment of Bonus Act, 1965 (21 of 1905), s. 2 (17)]
Factory, means any premises, including the precincts thereof, in any part of which a manufacturing pro-cess is carried on, S.T. Trading Co. v. Union of India, AIR 1966 Guj 165 (166) [Employees' Provident Funds Act (19 of 1952), s. 2(g)]. See also Polymat India Pvt. Ltd. v. National Insurance Co. Ltd., AIR 2005 SC 286.