SECRETARY, MADRAS GYMKHANA CLUB EMPLOYEES' UNION versus MANAGEMENT OF THE GYMKHANA CLUB

Citation: [1968] 1 S.C.R. 742 · Decided: 03-10-1967 · Supreme Court of India · Bench: M. HIDAYATULLAH · Disposal: Dismissed

Cited by 8 judgment(s) · cites 5 · see the full citation network in Lexace

Judgment (excerpt)

A SECRETARY; MADRAS GYMKHANA CLUB EMPLOYEES' 
UNION 
B 
v. 
MANAGEMENT OF THE GYMKHANA CLUB 
October 3, 1967 
[M. HIDAYATULLA\f, V. BHARGAVA AND C. A. VAIDIALINGAM, JI.) 
Industrial Disputes Act (14 of 1947), s. 2(j)-'Industry', what ia-
Meaning of the word 'undertaking' in the definition of 'indtlStTfl' -
Members' Club, if industl'y. 
The respondent is a non-proprietary members' club. It Is oreani. 
C ed on a vast scale with multifarious activities providing a venue for 
sports and games, and facilities for recreation, entertainment and 
for catering of food and refreshment. Guests are admitted but on 
the invitatipn of members. It has 194 employees with a wage bill 
between one lakh and two laks rupees. For the year 1962, the em-
ployees claimed bonus but the Industrial 
Tribunal held that the 
club was not an 'industry' within the meaning of the Industrial 
D Disputes Act, 1947, and rejected the claim of the employees. 
In appeal to this Court. 
Held: (1) The definitions of industrial dispute 'employer' and 
'workman' show that an industrial dispute can only arise In relation 
to an 'industry'. The definition of 'industry' is !n two parts, the first, 
from the point of view of employers and the second, from the angle 
of employees. In its first part it means any 'trade, business, under-
!! taking. manufacture or calling of employers'. This part detertl)ines 
an industry by reference to occupation of employers in reopect of · 
those activities specified by the five words and they_ determine what 
an 'industry' is, and what the cognate expression 'industrial' Is In-
tended to convey .. But the second part standing alone cannot define 
'industry'. If the existence of an industry viewed from the angle of 
what the employer is doing is established, all who render service 
F and fall within the definition of 'workman' come within the fold 
of industry, irrespective of what they do. Thus, the cardinal teet is 
to find out whether there is an industry according to the denotation 
of the word in the first part. (753 A-754 HJ. 
Taking the words in the definition of 'industry' the word 'trade' 
means exchange of goods for goods or goods for money, or, any 
bus_iness carried on with a view to profit, whether manual or mer-
G canti!e as distinguished from the liberal arts or learned professit>ns 
and from agriculture. The word 'business' 
means an enterPl'ile 
which is an occupation as distinguished from pleasure. and 'manu-
facture' is a kind of productive industry In which the making of 
articles or material, often on a large scale, is by physical labour or 
mechanical power. The word 'calling' denotes the following of a pro-
·fess;on or trade. [756 F-H]. 
The word 'undertaking' has figured In the cases of this Court. 
H In D. N. Banerjee v. P. R. Mukherjee, (1953] S.C.R. 302 it was observ-
ed that the word is not to be Interpreted by association with the 
words that precede or follow it in· the definition of 'industry', But 
the settled view of this Court is: that primarily Industrial disputes 
occur, when the operation undertaken rests upon cooperation bet-
ween employers and employees with a. view to production and dis-
tribution of material goods, in other words, wealth, but they may 
742 
GYlfKllANA CLUB UNION 11,· MANAGJIMENT (Hidayatullah, J,) 
748 
arise also in cases where the cooperation is to produce material aer-
A 
vices. For an ·undertaking' to be an industry, it is not necessary that 
it must be carr;ed on with capital by private enterprise or that it 
must be commercial or result in profit but there must be systema-
tic activity and it must be analogous to the carrying on of a trade 
or business involving co-operation between employers and em-
ployees. But every human activity in which the relationship of em-
ployers and employees enters, is not necessarily creative of an indus-
try. Personal se.rvices rendered by domestic and other servants, ad-
ministrative services of public officials, services in aid of occupa-
tions of professional men such as doctors and lawyers etc., employ-
ment of teachers and so on, may result in relationships in which 
there are employers on the one side and employees on the other, but 
they have been excluded because they do not come within the con-
notation of the term 'industry' as the service rendered is liot a 
material service. Therefore, the word 'undertaking', though elastic, 
must take its colour from other expressions used in the definition 
of 'industry', and must be def

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