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TMI Blog1998 (3) TMI 715X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... industry's dependence on exports, it is considered necessary to establish a Statutory Board on the lines of Boards set up for other plantation industries. (2) In order to finance the development of this industry it is proposed that a duty up to Rs. 1 per cwt. should be levied on coir fibre, coir yarn as well as coir mats and matting exported.... The Preamble to the Act states that it is an Act to provide for the establishment of a Board for the development of the coir industry and for that purpose to levy a customs duty on coir fibre, coir yarn and coir products exported from India and for matters connected therewith. Section 10 of the Coir Industry Act, 1953 lays down the functions of the Board:- Section 10: Functions of the Board:- (1) It shall be the duty of the Board to promote by such measures as it thinks fit the development under the control of the Central Government of the coir industry. (2) Without prejudice to the generality of the provisions of sub-sec. (1), the measures referred to therein may relate to- (a) promoting exports of coir yarn and coir products and carrying on propaganda for that purpose; (b) regulating under the supervision of the Central Government the ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... promoting their sale. 2. The Coir Board had employed certain temporary clerks and typists who were discharged. They claim that their services could only be terminated in accordance with the provisions of the Industrial Disputes Act, 1947. 3. A Full Bench of the Kerala High Court considered the question of application of the Industrial Disputes Act to the appellant-Coir Board along with a similar question raised in respect of a large number of Government Departments, Government companies, other statutory corporations and local bodies, in the impugned judgment. After extensively dealing with the various decisions of this Court on what is an 'industry' and who is a 'workman' under the Industrial Disputes Act, the High Court has come to the conclusion, inter alia, that Coir Board is an 'industry' as defined in the Industrial Disputes Act. Hence chapter V-A of the Industrial Disputes Act would be applicable in respect of termination of the services of its temporary clerks and typists. 4. 'Industry' is defined in section 2(j) of the Industrial Disputes Act, 1947 as any business, trade, undertaking, manufacture or calling of employers and includes any call ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... hat would affect large groups of workmen and employers ranged on opposite sides, on some general questions on which each group is bound together by a community of interests-such as wages, bonus, allowances, working hours and so on. In branches of work of a municipality analogous to carrying on of a trade or business, the dispute can be considered as an industrial dispute. A similar view was taken in the case of The Corporation of the City of Nagpur v. Its Employees : (1960) ILLJ 523 SC. In The State of Bombay Ors. v. The Hospital Mazdoor Sabha Ors., : (1960) ILLJ 251 SC the word 'undertaking' in the definition of an industry was held to connote an activity systematically and habitually undertaken for production or distribution of goods or for rendering material services to the community at large or a part of such community with the help of employees. Profit motive was considered as not relevant. This view of an industry covered organisations which would not have normally been considered as industries. But this Court observed that the conventional meaning of trade and business had lost some its validity for the Industrial Disputes Act which was a welfare measure for the bene ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... of Delhi and Anr. v. Ram Nath and Ors. : (1963) IILLJ 335 SC this court had held an educational institution was not an industry. 10. In the case of The Secretary, Madras Gymkhana Club Employees' Union v. The Management of the Gymkhana Club, : (1967) IILLJ 720 SC this Court held that every activity which involves the relationship of an employer and employee is not necessarily an industry. After examining the vast range of human activities, this Court held that in on industry co-operation between employers and employees was with a view to production and distribution of material goods or material services. A club was not an industry since its services were to the members themselves for their own pleasure and amusement and material goods were for their own consumption. It was a self-serving organisation and was not an industry. Following the same judgment, in the Cricket Club of India v. Bombay Union and Anr., : (1969) ILLJ 775 SC, the Cricket Club of India was held not to be an industry. 11. In the next year, in the case of The Management of Safdar Jung Hospital, New Delhi v. Kuldip Singh Sethi, : (1970) IILLJ 266 SC a Bench of six judges of this Court unanimously followed the ra ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... e matter from the angle of employees and is designed to include something more in what the term primarily denotes. By the second part of the definition, any calling, service, employment, handicraft or industrial occupation or avocation of workmen is included in the concept of an industry. This part gives the extended connotation. This Court also said that the word 'undertaking' must be defined as any business or any work or project which one engages in or attempts as an enterprise analogous to business or trade. It did not accept as correct the extension of the definition as laid down in The Corporation of the City of Nagpur v. Its employees (supra). : (1960) ILLJ 523 SC 13. However, this view which was reaffirmed in Safdar Jung Hospital's case (supra), by a decision of six judges of this court, as well as the University of Delhi's case (supra) were overruled in 1978 by a decision of a Bench of seven judges of this court in the case of Bangalore Water Supply Sewerege Board etc. v. A. Rajappa Ors. etc. : (1978) ILLJ 349 SC by a majority of five with two dissenting. 14. The definition of industry under the Industrial Disputes Act was held to cover all professions, clu ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... Notwithstanding the previous clauses, sovereign functions, strictly understood, alone qualify for exemption not the welfare activities or economic adventures undertaken by the government or statutory bodies. (c) Even in departments discharging sovereign functions, if there are units which are industries and they are substantially severable, then they can be considered to come within Section 2(j). (d) Constitutional and competently enacted legislative provisions may well remove from the scope of the Act categories which otherwise may be covered thereby 16. Two judges dissented from this view. They said that bearing in mind the collocation of terms in which a definition is couched and applying the doctrine of noscitur a sociis as pointed out in the Hospital Mazdoor Sabha's case (supra), when two or more words are coupled together they have to be understood as being used in their cognate sense taking their colour from each other. Meaning of a doubtful word may be ascertained by reference to the meaning of the words associated with it. Therefore, despite the width of the definition of 'industry' in Section 2(j) it could not have been the intention of the legislature that ho ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... tablishment of the Sub-Divisional Inspector of Post was held not to be an industry but as an exercise of a sovereign function. In the Case of Bombay Telephone Canteen Employees' Association, Prabhadevi Telephone Exchange v. Union of India Anr., : (1997) IILLJ 647 SC, this court, after examining the case law, held that workman employed in the departmental canteen of Telephone Nigam Limited and admittedly holding civil posts were not workmen within the meaning of the Industrial Disputes Act. However, a Bench of three judges of this court in Civil Appeal No. 7845 of 1997, General Manager, Telecom v. S. Srinivasa Rao Ors., decided on 18.11.1997 held that the cases of Sub-Divisional Inspector of Post (supra) and Bombay Telephone Canteen Employees' Association, Prabhadevi Telephone Exchange, (supra) were not correctly decided in view of the ratio laid down by a Bench of seven judges of this Court in the case of Bangalore Water Supply and Sewerage Board (supra). 19. Looking to the uncertainty prevailing in this area and in the light of the experience of the last two decades in applying the test laid down in the case of Bangalore Water Supply and Sewerage Board, (supra) it is neces ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... om industries for poor woman. A small number of persons were employed to assist in the activities. The income earned by these activities was distributed to the woman who were given such work. Other voluntary organisations organised tailoring or embroidery classes or similar activities for poor woman and provided an outlet for the sale of the work produced by them. These persons would otherwise have found it impossible to secure a market for their products. Such organisations are not organised like industries and they do not have the means or manpower to run them as industries. A large number of such voluntary welfare schemes have had to be abandoned because of the wide interpretation given to the term industry. 22. Apart from such activities, there may be other activities also which are undertaken in the spirit of community service, such as charitable hospitals where free medical services and free medicines may be provided. Such activities may be sustained by free services, given by professional men and women and by donations. Sometimes such activities may be sustained by using the profits in the paid section of that activity for providing free services in the free section. Doctors ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... also need protection , It is proposed to have a separate law for the settlement of individual grievances as well as collective disputes in respect of the workmen of these institution. All these have been taken into account and the term industry has been made more specific while making the coverage wider..... Unfortunately,despite the legislative mandate the definition has not been notified by the Executive as having come into force. 24. Since the difficulty has arisen because of the judicial interpretation given to the definition of 'industry' in the industrial disputes Act. There is no reason why the matter should not be judicially re-examined .In the present case ,the function of the coir Board is to promote coir industry's products more marketable. It is not setup to run any industry itself. Looking to the predominant purpose of which it is setup we would not call it an industry. However, if one were to apply the tests laid down by Bangalore Water Supply and Sewerage Board case (AIR 1978 SC 548) (supra).It is an organisation where there are employers and employees. The organisation does same useful work for the benefits of others. Threfore, it will have to be called ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X
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