Saraswath Films vs Regional Director, E.S.I. ...

The Court addressed whether security guards provided by an external agency should be counted as employees of a lessee cinema hall for the purpose of determining if the establishment is covered under the Employees' State Insurance Act, 1948. The appellant argued that since the guards were employees of an agency and not the cinema hall, they should be excluded from the employee count. The Insurance Court held that based on the definition in Section 2(9) of the Act, these guards were considered employees of the establishment, bringing the total employee count to 20 and making the establishment subject to the Act.