Agrawal Breweries Private Ltd. vs State Of Madhya Pradesh And Ors. on 5 September, 1989
15. In the light of the aforesaidjudgment of the Supreme Court it is clear that if Section 1 of the Central Act, 1951 read with the definitions of 'factory' and 'industrial undertaking' contained in Sub-sections (c) and (d) of Section 3 of the Act is taken into consideration then it would lead only to this interpretation that the license from the Government of India shall be necessary only if 50 or more workers would be working in such distilleries. This Court had also considered a similar question in Kedia Leather and Liquor Pvt. Ltd. v. State of M. P. (1989 MPLJ 538) (supra) and following the Supreme Court dictum on this point has held that a license from the Government of India under the Central Act of 1951 is not necessary for setting up of new distilleries if the number of workers employed in the industrial unit are less than fifty. In the instant case the petitioners have pleaded that the number of workers in the industry would be less than 50 and it is not the case of the respondents that the number of workers in the industrial undertaking of the petitioner would not be less than fifty. The stand taken by the respondents all through is that in view of the Notification of the Government of India the Industry being a scheduled industry, license from the Government of India is necessary.