Factories Act, 1948 · Chapter IX: Special Provisions
Section 85: Power to apply the Act to certain premises
The Factories Act, 1948 was repealed and replaced by the Occupational Safety, Health and Working Conditions Code, 2020 from 21 November 2025.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) The State Government may, by notification in the Official Gazette, declare that all or any of the provisions of this Act shall apply to any place wherein a manufacturing process is carried on with or without the aid of power or is so ordinarily carried on, notwithstanding that—
(i) the number of persons employed therein is less than ten, if working with the aid of power and less than twenty if working without the aid of power, or
(ii) the persons working therein are not employed by the owner thereof but are working with the permission of, or under agreement with, such owner:
Provided that the manufacturing process is not being carried on by the owner only with the aid of his family.
(2) After a place is so declared, it shall be deemed to be a factory for the purposes of this Act, and the owner shall be deemed to be the occupier, and any person working therein, a worker.
Explanation.—For the purposes of this section, “owner” shall include a lessee or mortgage with possession of the premises.
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.