Section 2:
Definitions.
In this Act, unless there is anything repugnant in the subject or context,--
(1) "appropriate Government" means, in respect of establishments under the control of the
Central Government or 1[a railway administration] or a major port or a mine or oilfield, the Central
Government, and in all other cases, the State Government;
2* * * * *
(3) "confinement" means labour resulting in the issue of a living child or labour after twenty-six
weeks of pregnancy resulting in the issue of a child whether alive or dead;
(4) "contribution" means the sum of money payable to the Corporation by the principal employer
in respect of an employee and includes any amount payable by or on behalf of the employee in
accordance with the provisions of this Act;
3* * * * *
(6) "Corporation" means the Employees State Insurance Corporation set up under this Act;
4[(6A) "dependant" means any of the following relatives of a deceased insured person, namely:--
5[(i) a widow, a legitimate or adopted son who has not attained the age of twenty-five
years, an unmarried legitimate or adopted daughter,]
6[(ia) a widowed, mother;]
(ii) if wholly dependent on the earnings of the insured person at the time of his death, a
legitimate or adopted son or daughter who has attained the age of 7[twenty-five years] and
is infirm;
(iii) if wholly or in part dependent on the earnings of the insured person at the time of
his death,--
(a) a parent other than a widowed mother,
(b) a minor illegitimate son, an unmarried illegitimate daughter or a daughter
legitimate or adopted or illegitimate if married and a minor or if widowed and a
minor,
(c) a minor brother or an unmarried sister or a widowed sister if a minor,
(d) a widowed daughter-in-law,
(e) a minor child of a pre-deceased son,
(f) a minor child of a pre-deceased daughter where no parent of the child is
alive, or
(g) a paternal grand-parent if no parent of the insured person is alive;
(7) "duly appointed" means appointed in accordance with the provisions of this Act or with the
rules or regulations made thereunder;
8[(8) "employment injury" means a personal injury to an employee caused by accident or an
occupational disease arising out of and in the course of his employment, being an insurable employment, whether the accident occurs or the occupational disease is contracted within or outside
the territorial limits of India;]
(9) "employee" means any person employed for wages in or in connection with the work of a
factory or establishment to which this Act applies and--
(i) who is directly employed by the principal employer on any work of, or incidental or
preliminary to or connected with the work of, the factory or establishment, whether such work is
done by the employee in the factory or establishment or elsewhere; or
(ii) who is employed by or through an immediate employer on the premises of the factory or
establishment or under the supervision of the principal employer or his agent on work which is
ordinarily part of the work of the factory or establishment or which is preliminary to the work
carried on in or incidental to the purpose of the factory or establishment; or
(iii) whose services are temporarily lent or let on hire to the principal employer by the person
with whom the person whose services are so lent or let on hire has entered into a contract of
service;9[and includes any person employed for wages on any work connected with the administration of the
factory or establishment or any part, department or branch thereof or with the purchase of raw materials
for, or the distribution or sale of the products of, the factory or establishment 10[or any person engaged as
an apprentice, not being an apprentice engaged under the Apprentices Act, 1961 (52 of 1961), or 11[and
includes such person engaged as apprentice whose training period is extended to any length of time] but
does not include]--
(a) any member of 12[the Indian] naval, military or air forces; or
13[(b) any person so employed whose wages (excluding remuneration for overtime work)
exceed 14[such wages as may be prescribed by the Central Government] a month:
Provided that an employee whose wages (excluding remuneration for overtime work) exceed 14[such
wages as may be prescribed by the Central Government] at any time after (and not before) the beginning
of the contribution period, shall continue to be an employee until the end of that period;]
(10) "exempted employee" means an employee who is not liable under this Act to pay the
employees contribution;
15[(11) "family" means all or any of the following relatives of an insured person, namely:--
(i) a spouse;
(ii) a minor legitimate or adopted child dependent upon the insured person;
(iii) a child who is wholly dependent on the earnings of the insured person and who is--
(a) receiving education, till he or she attains the age of twenty-one years,
(b) an unmarried daughter;
(iv) a child who is infirm by reason of any physical or mental abnormality or injury and is
wholly dependent on the earnings of the insured person, so long as the infirmity continues;
16[(v) dependant parents, whose income from all sources does not exceed such income as
may be prescribed by the Central Government;
(vi) in case the insured person is unmarried and his or her parents are not alive, a minor
brother or sister wholly dependant upon the earnings of the insured person;]
17[(12) factory means any premises including the precincts thereof whereon ten or more persons
are employed or were employed on any day of the preceding twelve months, and in any part of which
a manufacturing process is being carried on or is ordinarily so carried on, but does not include a mine
subject to the operation of the Mines Act, 1952 (35 of 1952) or a railway running shed;]
(13) immediate employer, in relation to employees employed by or through him, means a
person who has undertaken the execution, on the premises of a factory or an establishment to which
this Act applies or under the supervision of the principal employer or his agent, of the whole, or any
part of any work which is ordinarily part of the work of the factory or establishment of the principal
employer or is preliminary to the work carried on in, or incidental to the purpose of, any such factory
or establishment, and includes a person by whom the services of an employee who has entered into a
contract of service with him are temporarily lent or let on hire to the principal employer; 18[and
includes a contractor];
19[(13A) "insurable employment" means an employment in a factory or establishment to which
this Act applies;]
(14) "insured person" means a person who is or was an employee in respect of whom
contributions are or were payable under this Act and who is by reason thereof, entitled to any of the
benefits provided by this Act;
19[(14A) "managing agent" means any person appointed or acting as the representative of another
person for the purpose of carrying on such other person's trade or business, but does not include an
individual manager subordinate to an employer;
20[(14AA) "manufacturing process" shall have the meaning assigned to it in the Factories Act,
1948 (63 of 1948);]
(14B) "mis-carriage" means expulsion of the contents of a pregnant uterus at any period prior to
or during the twenty-sixth week of pregnancy but does not include any miscarriage, the causing of
which is punishable under the Indian Penal Code (45 of 1860);]
(15) "occupier" of the factory shall have the meaning assigned to it in the Factories Act, 21[1948
(63 of 1948);]
19[(15A) permanent partial disablement means such disablement of a permanent nature, as
reduces the earning capacity of an employee in every employment which he was capable of
undertaking at the time of the accident resulting in the disablement:
Provided that every injury specified in Part II of the Second Schedule shall be deemed to result in
permanent partial disablement;
(15B) "permanent total disablement" means such disablement of a permanent nature as
incapacitates an employee for all work which he was capable of performing at the time of the accident
resulting in such disablement:
Provided that permanent total disablement shall be deemed to result from every injury specified
in Part I of the Second Schedule or from any combination of injuries specified in Part II thereof where
the aggregate percentage of the loss of earning capacity, as specified in the said Part II against those
injuries, amounts to one hundred per cent. or more;]
20[(15C) "power" shall have the meaning assigned to it in the Factories Act, 1948 (53 of 1948);]
(16) "prescribed" means prescribed by rules made under this Act:
(17) "principal employer" means--
(i) in a factory, the owner or occupier of the factory and includes the managing agent of such
owner or occupier, the legal representative of a deceased owner or occupier, and where a person
has been named as the manager of the factory under 22[the Factories Act, 1948 (63 of 1948)], the
person so named;
(ii) in any establishment under the control of any department of any Government in India, the
authority appointed by such Government in this behalf or where no authority is so appointed, the
head of the department;
(iii) in any other establishment, any person responsible for the supervision and control of the
establishment;
(18) "regulation" means a regulation made by the Corporation;
(19) "Schedule" means a Schedule to this Act;
23[(19A) "seasonal factory" means a factory which is exclusively engaged in one or more of the
following manufacturing processes, namely, cotton ginning, cotton or jute pressing, decortication of
groundnuts, the manufacture of coffee, indigo, lac, rubber, sugar (including gur) or tea or any
manufacturing process which is incidental to or connected with any of the aforesaid processes and
includes a factory which is engaged for a period not exceeding seven months in a year--
(a) in any process of blending, packing or repacking of tea or coffee; or
(b) in such other manufacturing process as the Central Government may, by notification in the
Official Gazette, specify;]
(20) "sickness" means a condition which requires medical treatment and attendance and necessitates
abstention from work on medical grounds;
(21) "temporary disablement" means a condition resulting from an employment injury which requires
medical treatment and renders an employee, as a result of such injury, temporarily incapable of 24[doing
the work which he was doing prior to or at the time of the injury];
(22) wages means all remuneration paid or payable, in cash to an employee, if the terms of the
contract of employment, express or implied, were fulfilled and includes 25[any payment to an employee in
respect of any period of authorised leave, lock-out, strike which is not illegal or lay-off and] other
additional remuneration, if any, 26[paid at intervals not exceeding two months], but does not include--
(a) any contribution paid by the employer to any pension fund or provident fund, or under
this Act;
(b) any travelling allowance or the value of any travelling concession;
(c) any sum paid to the person employed to defray special expenses entailed on him by the
nature of his employment; or
(d) any gratuity payable on discharge;
27[(23) "wage period" in relation to an employee means the period in respect of which wages are
ordinarily payable to him whether in terms of the contract of employment, express or implied or
otherwise;]
28[(24) all other words and expressions used but not defined in this Act and defined in the
Industrial Disputes Act, 1947 (14 of 1947), shall have the meanings respectively assigned to them in
that Act.]
Notes:
1. Subs. by the A.O. 1950, for "a federal railway".
2. Omitted by Act 29 of 1989, s. 3 (w.e.f. 16-5-1990).
3. Omitted by s. 3, ibid. (w.e.f. 1-2-1991).
4. Ins. by Act 44 of 1966, s. 2 (w.e.f. 28-1-1968).
5. Subs. by Act 18 of 2010, s. 3, for sub-clause (i) ((w.e.f. 1-6-2010).
6. Ins. by Act 29 of 1989, s. 3 (w.e.f. 20-10-1989).
7. Subs. by Act 18 of 2010, s. 3, for "eighteen years" (w.e.f. 1-6-2010).
8. Subs. by Act 44 of 1966, s. 2, for clause (8) (w.e.f. 28-1-1968).
9. Subs. by Act 44 of 1966, s. 2, for "but does not include" (w.e.f. 28-1-1968).
10. Subs. by Act 29 of 1989, s. 3, for "but does not include" (w.e.f. 20-10-1989).
11. Subs. by Act 18 of 2010, s. 3, for "or under the standing orders of the establishment;" (w.e.f. 1-6-2010).
12. Subs. by the A.O. 1950, for "His Majesty's".
13. Subs. by Act 44 of 1966, s. 2, for sub-clause (b) (w.e.f. 28-1-1968).
14. Subs. by Act 29 of 1989, s. 3, for "one thousand and six hundred rupees a month" (w.e.f. 1-2-1991).
15. Subs. by s. 3, ibid., for clauses (11) and (12) (w.e.f. 20-10-1989).
16. Subs. by Act 18 of 2010, s. 3, for sub-clause (v) (w.e.f. 1-6-2010).
17. Subs. by Act 18 of 2010, s. 3, for clause (12) (w.e.f. 1-6-2010).
18. Added by Act 29 of 1989 s. 3 (w.e.f. 20-10-1989).
19. Ins. by Act 44 of 1966, s. 2 (w.e.f. 28-1-1968)
20. Ins. by Act 29 of 1989, s. 3 (w.e.f. 20-10-1989).
21. Subs. by Act 53 of 1951, s. 3, for "1934" (w.e.f. 6-10-1951).
22. Subs. by Act 53 of 1951, s. 3, for "clause (e) of sub-section (1) of section 9 of the Factories Act, 1934" (w.e.f. 6-10-1951).
23. Ins. by Act 29 of 1989, s. 3 (w.e.f. 20-10-1989).
24. Subs. by Act 44 of 1966, s. 2, for "work" (w.e.f. 28-1-1968).
25. Ins. by s. 2, ibid. (w.e.f. 28-1-1968).
26. Subs. by Act 53 of 1951, s. 3, for "paid at regular intervals after the last day of the wage period" (w.e.f. 6-10-1951).
27. Subs. by Act 45 of 1984, s. 2, for clause (23) (w.e.f. 27-1-1985).
28. Subs. by Act 44 of 1966, s. 2, for clause (24) (w.e.f. 28-1-1968).