Who is an ‘Adolescent’ as per the Factories Act, 1948 ?

Correct — A, (a) Who has completed 15 years of age but is less than 18 years. Section 2(b) of the Factories Act, 1948 defines an 'adolescent' as a person who has completed his fifteenth year of age but has not completed his eighteenth year, and the option reproduces both ends of that band. The band matters because the Act grades its protection by age and defines the neighbouring categories to fit around it: section 2(c) makes a 'child' a person who has not completed his fifteenth year, section 2(a) makes an 'adult' a person who has completed his eighteenth year, and section 2(d) gathers the first two together — a 'young person' is a person who is either a child or an adolescent. Read as a set, the three definitions tile the whole of a working life without a gap and without an overlap, which is why the lower bound of fifteen cannot be moved without breaking the definition of a child at the same time. The practical consequence sits in Chapter VII. Section 68 forbids a factory to employ an adolescent, or a child who has completed his fourteenth year, unless a certificate of fitness granted under section 69 is with the manager and the worker carries a token referring to it, and section 69(2)(b) lets the certifying surgeon certify a young person fit to work as an adult only once he has completed his fifteenth year. Section 70 then turns the certificate into status: an adolescent holding an adult certificate and carrying the token is deemed an adult, and an adolescent without one is deemed a child whatever his age.

Why the others are wrong

• (b)Who is less than 18 years — This keeps the upper bound and throws away the lower one, which collapses the Act's three-way scheme into two. If everyone under eighteen were an adolescent, the separate definition of a child in section 2(c) would have nothing left to describe and the certificate machinery of sections 68 to 70, which turns on whether a young person has completed his fifteenth year, would have nothing to hinge on. A definition drafted as a band always states both ends; an option that states one is usually the trap in a definitional item.
• (c)Who has completed 14 years of age but is less than 18 years — Fourteen to eighteen is a real Indian legal definition of 'adolescent' — it is section 2(i) of the Child and Adolescent Labour (Prohibition and Regulation) Act, 1986, as that Act stands after its 2016 amendment, under which an adolescent is a person who has completed his fourteenth year but has not completed his eighteenth. It is simply not the Factories Act's definition. The stem names the statute, and on that statute fourteen appears in a different role altogether: section 67 forbids the employment of any child who has not completed his fourteenth year, so fourteen is the floor for working at all rather than the floor of adolescence.
• (d)Who has completed 16 years of age but is less than 18 years — Sixteen is not one of the ages the Factories Act's definitions turn on. The ages that carry weight are fifteen and eighteen for the definitions themselves, fourteen for section 67's prohibition on employing young children, and seventeen for the night-work restriction in section 70(1A), which keeps a female adolescent and a male adolescent under seventeen out of the factory except between 6 A.M. and 7 P.M. An option built on an age the statute never uses in that role is worth striking out as soon as the real thresholds are recalled.

The Factories Act, 1948 protects workers in bands defined by completed years of age, and section 2 sets the bands out before any duty is imposed. A child is a person who has not completed his fifteenth year, section 2(c). An adolescent is a person who has completed his fifteenth year but has not completed his eighteenth, section 2(b). An adult is a person who has completed his eighteenth year, section 2(a). A young person is either a child or an adolescent, section 2(d) — a convenience term the Act uses whenever a duty applies to both. The phrase 'has completed his fifteenth year' means the fifteenth birthday has passed, so an adolescent under this Act is a worker aged fifteen, sixteen or seventeen. On top of the bands sits a certification system: sections 68 and 69 require a certificate of fitness from a certifying surgeon before a child who has completed fourteen or an adolescent may work, the certificate is valid for twelve months, and section 70 makes the certificate rather than the birthday decide what the worker may be asked to do — an adolescent certified fit to work as an adult is treated as an adult for the working-hours chapters, and an adolescent without such a certificate is treated as a child however old he is.

Key facts

• Factories Act, 1948, section 2(b): 'adolescent' means a person who has completed his fifteenth year of age but has not completed his eighteenth year.
• Section 2(c): 'child' means a person who has not completed his fifteenth year of age; section 2(a): 'adult' means a person who has completed his eighteenth year of age.
• Section 2(d): 'young person' means a person who is either a child or an adolescent — the umbrella term for everyone below eighteen.
• Section 67 prohibits the employment of any child who has not completed his fourteenth year in any factory.
• Section 68 requires a child who has completed fourteen, or an adolescent, to have a certificate of fitness held by the manager and to carry a token referring to it while at work.
• Section 69(2) lets a certifying surgeon certify fitness to work as a child from the completed fourteenth year, and fitness to work as an adult only from the completed fifteenth year; a certificate is valid for twelve months and may be revoked.
• Section 70 makes the certificate decisive — an adolescent with an adult certificate who carries the token is deemed an adult, and an adolescent without one is deemed a child notwithstanding his age.
• Section 71 limits a child to four and a half hours a day and forbids work at night, night being at least twelve consecutive hours including 10 P.M. to 6 A.M.
• A different statute uses the same word differently: the Child and Adolescent Labour (Prohibition and Regulation) Act, 1986, section 2(i), makes an adolescent a person who has completed his fourteenth year but not his eighteenth.

Common traps

• Carrying the child-labour law's fourteen-to-eighteen band across to the Factories Act. The Act named in the stem settles which lower bound applies.
• Reading 'has completed his fifteenth year' as 'is in his fifteenth year'. Completed means the birthday has passed, so the band runs from the fifteenth birthday to the eighteenth.
• Forgetting that fourteen appears in the Factories Act too, but as the floor for employment under section 67, not as the start of adolescence.
• Assuming an adolescent may automatically work adult hours. Section 70 requires an adult certificate of fitness and a token; without them the adolescent is deemed a child.
• Treating 'young person' as a synonym for adolescent. It covers children as well.
• Choosing an option that gives only one bound of a band. Statutory definitions of this kind always fix both.

• practice — not a real PYQ

  Under the Factories Act, 1948, a person who has not completed his fifteenth year of age is defined as :

  • (a)An adolescent
  • (b)A child
  • (c)A young person only
  • (d)An adult

  Answer(b) A child

• practice — not a real PYQ

  Under the Factories Act, 1948, an adolescent who has not been granted a certificate of fitness to work as an adult shall be deemed to be :

  • (a)An adult
  • (b)A child
  • (c)An apprentice
  • (d)A contract worker

  Answer(b) A child