SC judge: Was reference to 7-J bench, then to 9-J bench valid?

NEW DELHI: Justice Dipankar Datta, part of the CJI Surya Kant-led nine-judge bench testing the correctness of the expansive definition of 'industry' that the court settled on in 1978, Tuesday questioned the correctness of the process through which a five-judge bench referred the matter to a larger bench in 2005.

Justice Datta said, "There is no deliberation in the 2005 judgment as to what compelling circumstances warranted reference to a larger bench. Moreover, was it correct on the part of the five-judge bench to delineate the ratio, that is how many judges in the 7-J bench were in majority of the judgment? Once a judgment is rendered by a bench, irrespective of the division, it is considered as the view of the entire bench. So, was it a valid reference to a larger bench?"

The matter was placed before a seven-judge bench, which had referred the issue to nine-judge bench in 2016. Attorney general R Venkataramani said he might not support the reasons given by the five-judge bench, but "let that not detain the nine-judge bench now from proceeding with the issue - correctness of 'industry' definition in the Bangalore Water Supply judgment of 1978".

The case had an interesting genesis. Bangalore Water Supply and Sewerage Board had fined two employees for misconduct and deducted the amount from their salary in 1972. They had filed a petition under the Industrial Disputes Act for recovery of the amount. The board said it is a statutory body providing basic amenities to citizens and cannot be categorised as industry. The Industrial Tribunal and HC, however, agreed with the employees. On appeal, the SC on Feb 21, 1978, defined "industry" expansively. Such was the sweep of its ambit that almost everything - temples, universities, social forestry work, hospitals - came to be defined as industry and workers got covered under Industrial Disputes Act.

Finding the definition unacceptable, Parliament in 1982 amended the definition of 'industry', but it was never notified. In 2020, Parliament enacted the Industrial Relation Code "to consolidate and amend the laws relating to trade unions, conditions of employment in industrial establishment or undertaking, investigation and settlement of industrial disputes and for matters concerned therewith or incidental thereto".

It came into force from Nov 21, 2025, and has repealed the Industrial Disputes Act.
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