State of Uttar Pradesh Vs Jai Bir Singh (Supreme Court of India)
Summary: In State of Uttar Pradesh v. Jai Bir Singh, a nine-Judge Bench of the Supreme Court considered one of the most persistent questions in Indian labour law: whether the interpretation of “industry” under Section 2(j) of the Industrial Disputes Act, 1947 (“ID Act”) laid down by the seven-Judge Bench in Bangalore Water Supply & Sewerage Board v. A. Rajappa, (1978) 2 SCC 213 required reconsideration. The controversy had originated in disputes concerning whether governmental and other establishments, including the Social Forestry Department of the State of Uttar Pradesh, could fall within the statutory expression “industry”. The reference ultimately required the Court to examine not merely the breadth of Section 2(j), but also the continued authority of Bangalore Water Supply, the validity and necessity of the larger-Bench reference, the scope of sovereign functions, the consequences of the unenforced 1982 amendment to the ID Act, and, critically, the effect of the repeal of the ID Act following enforcement of the Industrial Relations Code, 2020 (“IR Code”) with effect from 21 November 2025. The nine Judges delivered separate opinions and differed on some important questions concerning the validity of the reference and whether the Bangalore Water Supply test required reformulation, but they converged on the practical result of considerable importance: pending disputes arising under the repealed ID Act are to continue to be adjudicated under the legal position laid down in Bangalore Water Supply, while the definition of “industry” in Section 2(p) of the IR Code is to be interpreted independently under the new statutory regime.
