Overview
- CJI Surya Kant will head the bench with Justices B.V. Nagarathna, P.S. Narasimha, Dipankar Datta, Ujjal Bhuyan, Satish Chandra Sharma, Joymalya Bagchi, Alok Aradhe and Vipul M. Pancholi.
- The bench will consider whether Justice V.R. Krishna Iyer’s paragraphs 140–144 in the 1978 Bangalore Water Supply ruling state the correct test for defining ‘industry’ under the Industrial Disputes Act.
- One key question is whether social-welfare schemes or other activities undertaken by government departments or their instrumentalities qualify as ‘industrial activities’ under Section 2(j).
- The court will also assess any interpretive impact of the unimplemented Industrial Disputes (Amendment) Act, 1982, and the Industrial Relations Code, 2020, which took effect on November 21, 2025.
- The reference stems from State of U.P. v. Jai Bir Singh (2002) and follows referrals by a five-judge bench in 2005 and a seven-judge bench in 2017, with arguments slated to conclude on March 18.