NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Thursday held that the broad meaning of “industry” laid down in its 1978 Bangalore Water Supply judgment is the “correct interpretation” and would apply to establishments where an employer-employee relationship exists.A nine-judge bench headed by Chief Justice Surya Kant, in a 6:3 majority judgment, observed that the expansive interpretation of “industry” under the Industrial Disputes Act, 1947, was necessary in the post-Independence decades to protect workers from arbitrary retrenchment.Justice Joymalya Bagchi refused to exempt temples and charitable organisations, which operate on donations, from the expansive meaning of industry. He stressed that the definition would apply if employee-employer relationship exists in a establishment, irrespective of its spiritual or charitable objective.The bench also refused to disturb the “Triple Test” laid down in the Supreme Court’s 1978 judgment to determine what amounts to an “industry” under Section 2(j) of the Industrial Disputes Act, 1947.
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“The Triple Test has stood the test of time. All pending disputes under the 1947 Industrial Disputes Act will continue to be decided on the basis of the Bangalore Water Supply judgment,” it said.“For future disputes, the new Industrial Relations Code, 2020 will apply. The new Code must be interpreted on its own text and context. The Bangalore Water Supply judgment will not govern its interpretation,” it added.On February 21, 1978, a seven-judge Supreme Court bench delivered a verdict on the definition of the term “industry” while deciding the plea of Bangalore Water Supply and Sewerage Board and expanded the definition which brought millions of employees in hospitals, educational institutions, clubs and government welfare departments under the protection of the now-repealed Industrial Disputes Act, 1947.
