KSLU Solved Question Papers
Labour Law I
Previous Year Question Paper with Solution
B.A. LL.B. (Five Years) · Sem 5
2013 Dec Examination
munotes.in
Mumbai
B.A. LL.B. (Five Years) Sem 5 Labour Law I 2013 Dec Question Paper with Solutions
First published on munotes.in on 21 October 2026.
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Model answers written and edited by the munotes.in editorial desk.
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The question paper reproduced here is the paper as set by Karnataka State Law University at the 2013 Dec examination.
Contents
The questions below are the paper as Karnataka State Law University set it at the 2013 Dec examination, in the order it was set.
MarksPage
MarksPage
The Paper as Set
The questions in this volume are the questions asked at the 2013 Dec examination, reproduced as Karnataka State Law University set them, in the order it set them. Long reading passages are shortened to their first and last lines and our summary; the original paper prints them in full. Only the answers are ours. See the original question paper.
Duration 3 hours · Total marks 100 · 20 questions answered
Instructions printed on the paper
- N.B. (1) Answer all 5 Questions. (2) One essay type and one short note question or problem from each unit have to be attempted, which is referred as part (a) and (b) in all the units. (3) Figures to the right indicate marks. (4) Answers should be written either in English or Kannada completely.
How to use this volume
Solve the paper first, under exam conditions and against the clock. Then read the answers here and mark your own. Reading a solution before attempting the question feels productive and teaches very little, because recognising an answer is not the same as being able to write one.
Q1
Unit I
(a)Define 'Industry' and whether Hospital is an Industry ?[15]
Answer
For full marks, cover: the text of section 2(j) of the Industrial Disputes Act 1947 and why it matters (no industry, no industrial dispute, no protection); the elements of an industry as settled in Bangalore Water Supply (systematic activity, employer-employee co-operation, goods or services for human wants; profit and capital irrelevant; the functional focus) and the exceptions (sovereign functions, voluntary charity, spiritual activity); the dominant nature test; the hospital question: the swings from Hospital Mazdoor Sabha (yes) to Safdarjung Hospital (no, unless commercial) to Bangalore Water Supply (yes); applying the test to five kinds of hospital (State, private, charitable, teaching and research, a factory dispensary); the 1982 amendment and Jai Bir Singh (2005 and 2026); section 2(p) of the Industrial Relations Code 2020 and its charitable exclusion; a table; a conclusion.
The definition and why it matters
Section 2(j) reads: "'industry' means any business, trade, undertaking, manufacture or calling of employers and includes any calling, service, employment, handicraft, or industrial occupation or avocation of workmen". The first part looks at the employer's activity. The second looks at the workers' side of the same activity.
Everything in the Act depends on this word. An "industrial dispute" must arise in an industry (section 2(k)), and a "workman" must be employed in one (section 2(s)). If a hospital is not an industry, its ward boys cannot claim retrenchment compensation, raise a dispute or seek reinstatement.
The elements of an industry
Bangalore Water-Supply and Sewerage Board v. R. Rajappa, AIR 1978 SC 548. A statutory water and sewerage board penalised some employees, and argued that the Act did not reach it. Earlier decisions on hospitals, universities, clubs and professional firms could not be reconciled. A seven-Judge Bench therefore restated the law.
- Systematic activity. Casual or occasional work is not enough. The activity must be organised and carried on regularly.
- Co-operation between employer and employee. The activity must be carried on through employees working for an employer. A doctor treating patients alone is not an industry.
- Goods or services for human wants. It must produce or distribute goods or services that satisfy human wants or wishes. Purely spiritual or religious services are excluded.
- Profit and capital do not matter. An activity is an industry whether it is run for profit or not, and in the public, private or any other sector.
- The focus is functional. The nature of the activity, and the relation between employer and employees, decide. The motive or the owner does not.
The exceptions. Three kinds of activity fall outside.
- Sovereign functions, strictly understood, such as defence, police and the administration of justice. The State's welfare activities do not qualify.
- Voluntary charity, where those who serve are not paid or not employed as servants. A charity that employs paid staff on a master-and-servant basis is still an industry.
- Spiritual and religious activity.
The dominant nature test. Where an institution carries on several activities, its predominant nature decides. If that is an industry, the whole is one, though persons who are not workmen gain nothing.
The hospital question: three swings
1. Yes (1960).
State of Bombay v. Hospital Mazdoor Sabha, AIR 1960 SC 610. The State of Bombay retrenched ward servants of its J.J. Group of Hospitals without paying compensation. The Supreme Court held the State was carrying on an industry. The definition is wide, and profit or capital is not essential. Only regal or sovereign activities fall outside, not welfare activities. So the retrenchment without compensation was bad.
2. No, unless run commercially (1970).
Management of Safdarjung Hospital v. Kuldip Singh Sethi, AIR 1970 SC 1407. Three hospitals were before the Court: Safdarjung Hospital of the Government, a tuberculosis hospital doing research and training, and a charitable hospital in Patna. A Bench of six Judges held none of them an industry. An industry, it said, must be an economic activity analogous to trade or business. A hospital could be one only if run "as a business in a commercial way".
3. Yes again (1978). Bangalore Water Supply approved Hospital Mazdoor Sabha and overruled Safdarjung Hospital. Under the triple test, a hospital organises doctors, nurses and staff to render a service that meets a basic human want. So it is an industry.
Applying the test to different hospitals
- A State hospital. Healing the sick is a welfare activity, not a sovereign function. So it is an industry, as Hospital Mazdoor Sabha held.
- A private hospital run for profit. It is plainly an industry, even under Safdarjung Hospital.
- A charitable hospital with paid staff. Charity does not take it out, because profit is irrelevant. Only an institution served by unpaid volunteers falls outside.
- A teaching or research hospital. Under the dominant nature test, if treating patients predominates, the whole hospital is an industry. Its teachers and researchers may still not be workmen.
- A dispensary inside a factory. It serves the factory's own industry, so its paid staff are covered like other workmen.
What turns on the answer: an example
A private hospital closes its laundry and dismisses six washermen who have worked there for eight years. If the hospital is an industry, each washerman is a workman, and the closure of his post is retrenchment. Section 25F then requires a month's notice or wages in lieu, and compensation of fifteen days' average pay for each completed year. Without them, the retrenchment is invalid, as it was for the ward servants in Hospital Mazdoor Sabha. If the hospital were not an industry, the washermen would have only their contracts to rely on.
The attempts to narrow it
- The 1982 amendment. The Industrial Disputes (Amendment) Act 1982 substituted a new section 2(j). It expressly excluded hospitals and dispensaries. But it was never brought into force.
State of U.P. v. Jai Bir Singh, (2005) 5 SCC 1. A five-Judge Bench, asked whether a social forestry department was an industry, noted that the 1982 amendment lay dormant. It referred Bangalore Water Supply to a larger Bench.
- The 2026 answer. A nine-Judge Bench decided the reference on 20 August 2026 (2026 SCC OnLine SC 1684). The Chief Justice's lead opinion asked for a "discernible commercial character", but only for the future. Disputes still pending under the 1947 Act are decided by the Bangalore Water Supply test.
At a glance
| Hospital | 1947 Act, after Bangalore Water Supply | Industrial Relations Code 2020 |
|---|---|---|
| State-run | industry (Hospital Mazdoor Sabha) | industry |
| Private, for profit | industry | industry |
| Run by a charity with paid staff | industry | excluded |
| Served only by unpaid volunteers | not an industry | excluded |
| Teaching or research hospital | industry if treatment predominates | industry, unless a charity runs it |
Where the law stands now
The 1947 Act was repealed on 21 November 2025 by section 104 of the Industrial Relations Code 2020. Section 2(p) of the Code writes the triple test into the statute. Capital and profit motive remain irrelevant, and workers engaged through a contractor count. But it excludes institutions owned or managed by organisations "wholly or substantially engaged in any charitable, social or philanthropic service". It also excludes sovereign functions and domestic service. So a Government or private hospital is an industry under the Code, but one run by a charitable organisation is not.
Conclusion. An industry is a systematic activity, carried on through employees, producing goods or services for human wants, whatever the motive, as Bangalore Water Supply holds. Hospitals swung from industry in Hospital Mazdoor Sabha, to non-industry unless commercial in Safdarjung Hospital, and back to industry in 1978. So under the 1947 Act a hospital is an industry, unless it is run only by unpaid volunteers. The 1982 amendment excluding hospitals never came into force, and the 2026 decision left pending disputes on the 1978 test. The Industrial Relations Code now excludes hospitals run by charitable organisations.
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