'Industry' Definition Reference : Live Updates From Supreme Court 9-Judge Bench Hearing
LIVELAW NEWS NETWORK
17 March 2026 10:20 AM IST
A 9-judge bench of the Supreme Court will hear today the reference on the correctness of the definition of “industry” given by then Justice VR Krishna Iyer in the 1978 decision in Bangalore Water Supply and Sewerage Board v. A. Rajappa.
A bench comprising Chief Justice of India Surya Kant, Justices BV Nagarathna, PS Narasimha, Dipankar Datta, Ujjal Bhuyan, Satish Chandra Sharma, Joymalya Bagchi, Alok Aradhe and Vipul M. Pancholi is hearing the matter.
In the Bangalore Water Supply case, a seven-judge bench had laid down a sweeping interpretation of the term “industry” under the Industrial Disputes Act, 1947. The Court held that any systematic activity organised by cooperation between employer and employee for the production or distribution of goods and services could fall within the definition of industry, even if the organisation was not engaged in profit making.
The correctness of this decision was doubted in a 2002 appeal. The matter was ultimately referred to a 9-judge bench in 2017, since the Bangalore Water Supply case was rendered by a 9-judge bench.
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Live Updates
- 17 March 2026 2:59 PM IST
Additional Solicitor General KM Nataraj (State of Uttar Pradesh): very expansive interpretation has been given and to remove certain ambiguity, the legislature brought the 1982 and now again to give certain definition to industry-this had to be taken as indicator for the purpose of interpretation
- 17 March 2026 2:57 PM IST
AG: mordern indian state is not confined to traditional sovereign functions such as defence, public order etc. rather it operates as a welfare state task with implementing wide ranging socio economic and development policies. such activities undertaken by the state frequently involve organisational-operational elements, superficially resembling industrial undertaking
- 17 March 2026 2:57 PM IST
AG: issue 2. social welfare activities and schemes are the enterprises undertaken by the government department can't be considered as industrial activity for the purpose...
caution must be taken while applying triple test to different activities especially in relation to charitable organisation and gov departments carrying out sovereign functions, gov functions, constitutionally mandated functions
- 17 March 2026 2:46 PM IST
AG: large number of legislative and regulatory framework have encroached many of our rights more particulary in the realm of industrial uses. therefore to say shackle the powers of the government and to say that the sovereign functions to be only minimal, those invaluable functions like arms, defence etc, I think it would be a very narrow way of looking at it.