UPSC Prelims Practice Questions — Trade unions sound the alarm over Supreme Court judgment on the definition of industry

Q1. Which one of the following most accurately describes what the majority of the nine-judge Bench held in its August 2026 verdict on the meaning of the term "industry"?

  • A. The triple test continues to govern disputes pending under the repealed Industrial Disputes Act, 1947, but is not a sweeping anchor for interpreting the definition in the 2020 Code
  • B. The triple test stands wholly displaced by a dominant-nature test, which is to be applied alike to pending disputes and to fresh disputes under the 2020 Code
  • C. The triple test is carried forward intact into the 2020 Code, while all disputes pending under the 1947 Act are to be reheard afresh on that basis
  • D. The triple test survives only for establishments discharging sovereign functions, and stands abandoned for charitable and philanthropic institutions

Q2. The definition of "industry" which the nine-judge Bench expressly left open for future adjudication, declining to read the 1978 test into it, is contained in:

  • A. Section 2(p) of the Industrial Relations Code, 2020
  • B. Section 2(j) of the Industrial Relations Code, 2020
  • C. Section 2(p) of the Code on Social Security, 2020
  • D. Section 2(k) of the Occupational Safety, Health and Working Conditions Code, 2020

Q3. In the triple test as formulated in 1978, the requirement additional to the activity being organised and systematic, and to there being cooperation between employer and employees, is that the activity must:

  • A. result in goods or services calculated to satisfy human wants or wishes
  • B. generate a surplus that is ploughed back into the establishment concerned
  • C. engage a minimum number of persons borne on the rolls of the establishment
  • D. be notified by the appropriate Government as a public utility service

Q4. The statutory definition of "industry" that the 1978 triple test interpreted, and which now survives only for pending disputes, was located in:

  • A. Section 2(j) of the Industrial Disputes Act, 1947
  • B. Section 2(e) of the Industrial Employment (Standing Orders) Act, 1946
  • C. Section 2(h) of the Trade Unions Act, 1926
  • D. Section 2(l) of the Factories Act, 1948

Q5. Industrial disputes falling in the central sphere under the Industrial Disputes Act, 1947 are adjudicated by which one of the following?

  • A. Central Government Industrial Tribunals-cum-Labour Courts
  • B. Benches of the National Company Law Tribunal
  • C. Benches of the Central Administrative Tribunal
  • D. The Employees' Provident Fund Appellate Tribunal

Q6. Under Section 2(p) of the Industrial Relations Code, 2020, activities other than those already listed may be taken out of the meaning of "industry" by:

  • A. the Central Government, by notification
  • B. the appropriate Government, with the prior concurrence of the industrial tribunal concerned
  • C. the State Government, on the recommendation of its Labour Advisory Board
  • D. the Ministry of Corporate Affairs, in consultation with the employers' associations

Q7. Of the four labour codes brought into force with effect from 21 November 2025, the one enacted earliest by Parliament is:

  • A. the Code on Wages
  • B. the Industrial Relations Code
  • C. the Code on Social Security
  • D. the Occupational Safety, Health and Working Conditions Code

Q8. The four labour codes rationalising 29 central labour laws were brought into force, and their draft central rules pre-published, by which one of the following?

  • A. the Ministry of Labour and Employment
  • B. the Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship
  • C. the Ministry of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises
  • D. the Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade