Triple test, adrift: On the ruling on definition of ‘industry’

A nine-judge bench of the Supreme Court of India delivered a judgment concerning the definition of an "industry" under the Industrial Disputes Act, 1947. The Court maintained the "Triple Test" established in the 1978 Bangalore Water Supply and Sewerage Board vs A. Rajappa case for pending disputes but ruled it would not serve as the interpretive anchor for the new Industrial Relations Code, 2020. This editorial critiques the majority decision, arguing that severing the Triple Test from the new code undermines the framework for resolving industrial disputes and protecting workers in an increasingly privatized economy.