Section 47: Shelters, rest rooms and lunch rooms

The Factories Act, 1948 was repealed and replaced by the Occupational Safety, Health and Working Conditions Code, 2020 from 21 November 2025. It still applies to matters and proceedings from before that date, as the repealing law provides.

(1) In every factory wherein more than one hundred and fifty workers are ordinarily employed, adequate and suitable shelters or rest rooms and a suitable lunch room, with provision for drinking water, where workers can eat meals brought by them, shall be provided and maintained for the use of the workers:

Provided that any canteen maintained in accordance with the provisions of section 46 shall be regarded as part of the requirements of this sub-section:

Provided further that where a lunch room exists no worker shall eat any food in the work room.

(2) The shelters or rest rooms or lunch rooms to be provided under sub-section (1) shall be sufficiently lighted aid ventilated and shall be maintained in a cool and clean condition.

(3) The State Government may—

(a) prescribe the standards in respect of construction, accommodation, furniture and other equipment of shelters, rest rooms and lunch rooms to be provided under this section;

(b) by notification in the Official Gazette, exempt any factory or class or description of factories from the requirements of this section.

Source: India Code (Legislative Department), the text of the Act as it stood before its repeal. Words in square brackets [ ] were inserted or substituted by later amending Acts, and *** marks words omitted by an amendment. The amendment footnotes are not reproduced here. Official text on India Code.

Supreme Court judgments citing the section 47

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