In Brief
The Employees' State Insurance Corporation challenged a High Court judgment that had excluded the respondent's cold storage factory from ESI Act coverage on the ground that it was located outside the Silchar Municipal Board limits. The Supreme Court held that the 1999 notification extending the ESI Act was not restricted to the municipal board area. The word "including" and the explicit naming of Village Tarapur twice in the notification—once in relation to the Municipal Corporation and again in relation to a different revenue area—demonstrated the government's intent to extend coverage beyond municipal limits. Under settled principles of statutory interpretation, every word must be given effect and cannot be treated as surplusage. The Court allowed the appeal, holding the establishment was covered by the ESI Act.
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