law: Industrial Employment (Standing Orders) Act, 1946
  2. Interpretation
  In this Act, unless there is anything repugnant in the subject
  
  or context-
   4  [(a) "appellate authority" means an authority
  
  appointed by the appropriate government by notification in the Official Gazette
  
  to exercise in such area as may be specified in the notification the functions
  
  of an appellate authority under this Act:
  PROVIDED that in relation to an appeal pending before
  
  an Industrial Court or other authority immediately before the commencement of
  
  the Industrial Employment (Standing Orders) Amendment Act, 1963 (39 of 1963),
  
  that court or authority shall be deemed to be the appellate authority;]
  (b) "appropriate government" means in respect of
  
  industrial establishments under the control of the Central Government or a
  
  Railway administration or in a major port, mine, or oil-field, the Central
  
  Government, and in all other cases, the State Government:
   5  [PROVIDEDthat where any question arises as to
  
  whether any industrial establishment is under the control of the Central
  
  Government, that Government may, either on a reference made to it by the
  
  employer or the workman or a trade union or other representative body of the
  
  workmen, or on its own motion and after giving the parties an opportunity of
  
  being heard, decided the question and such decision shall be final and binding
  
  on the parties;]
   2  [(c) "Certifying Officer" means a Labor
  
  Commissioner or a Regional Labor Commissioner, and includes any other officer
  
  appointed by the appropriate government, by notification in the Official
  
  Gazette, to perform all or any of the functions of a Certifying Officer under
  
  this Act;]
  (d) "employer" means the owner of an industrial establishment
  
  to which this Act for the time being applies, and includes-
  (i) in a factory, any person named under 2[clause
  
  (f) of sub-section (1) of section 7 of the Factories Act, 1948 (63 of 1948), as
  
  manager of the factory;
  (ii) in any industrial 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 industrial establishment,
  
  any person responsible to the owner for the supervision and control of the
  
  industrial establishment;
  (e) "industrial establishment" means-
  (i) an industrial establishment as defined in
  
  clause (ii) of section 2 of the Payment of Wages Act, 1936 (4 of 1936); or
   2  [(ii) a factory as defined in clause
  
  (m) of section 2 of the Factories Act, 1948 (63 of 1948); or]
  (iii) a railway as defined in clause (4) of
  
  section 2 of the Indian Railways Act, 1890 (9 of 1890), or
  (iv) the establishment of a person who, for
  
  the purpose of fulfilling a contract with the owner of any industrial
  
  establishment, employee's workmen:
  (f) "prescribed" means prescribed by rules made by the
  
  appropriate government under this Act;
  (g) "standing orders" means rules relating to matters
  
  set out in the Schedule;
  (h) "trade union" means a trade union for the time
  
  being registered under the Indian Trade Unions Act, 1926 (16 of 1926);
   6  [(i) "wages" and "workman" have the
  
  meanings respectively assigned to them in clauses (rr) and (s) of section 2 of
  
  the Industrial Disputes Act, 1947 (14 of 1947).]