Employer :

The following persons are included in the definition of “employer”:

(a) any body of persons incorporated or not;

(b) any managing agent of the employer;

(c) legal representative of a deceased employer. Thus, one who inherits the estate of the deceased, is made liable for the payment of compensation under the Act. However, he is liable only upto the value of the estate inherited by him;

(d) any person to whom the services of a employee are temporarily lent or let on hire by a person with whom the employee has entered into a contract of service or apprenticeship. [Section 2(1)(e)]

A contractor falls within the above definition of the employer. Similarly, a General Manager of a Railway is an employer (Baijnath Singh v. O.T. Railway, A.I.R. 1960 All 362).