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Industrial Disputes Act, 1947 · Chapter I: Preliminary

Section 2A: Dismissal, etc., of an individual workman to be deemed to be an industrial dispute

The Industrial Disputes Act, 1947 was repealed and replaced by the Industrial Relations Code, 2020 from 21 November 2025. It still applies to matters and proceedings from before that date, as the repealing law provides.

In plain words

When an employer discharges, dismisses, retrenches or otherwise terminates an individual workman, a dispute about it counts as an industrial dispute, even if no union or other workman supports it.

Example: A single worker is dismissed and no union takes up the case. The worker can still raise an industrial dispute about the dismissal.

A simplified explanation, prepared with AI assistance from the official text below and checked automatically against it for numbers and cross-references. The official text is the law and prevails over this summary. Not legal advice.

Read the in-depth explanation, with key Supreme Court rulings ↓

Official text

Where any employer discharges, dismisses, retrenches, or otherwise terminates the services of an individual workman, any dispute or difference between that workman and his employer connected with, or arising out of, such discharge, dismissal, retrenchment or termination shall be deemed to be an industrial dispute notwithstanding that no other workman nor any union of workmen is a party to the dispute.]

Source: India Code (Legislative Department), the text of the Act as it stood before its repeal. Words in square brackets [ ] were inserted or substituted by later amending Acts, and *** marks words omitted by an amendment. The amendment footnotes are not reproduced here. Official text on India Code.

Understanding this section

Section 2A lets a single workman raise a dispute about their own discharge, dismissal, retrenchment or termination. Without it, an individual grievance became an industrial dispute only if a union or a body of workmen took it up.

Why the section was needed

The definition of industrial dispute in section 2(k) was read by the courts as requiring a collective element. A dismissed workman whose cause no union espoused had no remedy under the Act. Section 2A, inserted in 1965, removes that hurdle for the four kinds of termination it names, and only for them. A dispute about pay scales or promotion raised by one workman alone still needs collective support.

What it covers

The words are wide: discharge, dismissal, retrenchment, or otherwise terminates. Courts have read otherwise terminates to include striking a workman's name off the rolls. The dispute still has to be referred by the appropriate Government under section 10, unless the later amendment allowing direct access to the Labour Court applies.

The Act was repealed by the Industrial Relations Code, 2020 from 21 November 2025. The cases here remain the guide to disputes that arose under the old Act.

Key Supreme Court rulings

  • Rustom & Hornsby (I) Ltd. v. T. B. Kadam 1975 INSC 140

    A dismissal after a domestic enquiry was an industrial dispute under section 2A even though no other workman or union joined it, and the Labour Court could examine whether the enquiry and the punishment were proper.

  • H.D. Singh v. Reserve Bank of India 1985 INSC 195

    Striking off a workman's name from the rolls is termination of service, and the dispute falls squarely within section 2A.

  • Rameshwar Manjhi v. Management of Sangramgarh Colliery 1993 INSC 370

    A reference of an individual dispute under section 2A does not abate when the workman dies during adjudication; the heirs and legal representatives may continue it.

Common mistakes

  • Applying section 2A to every individual grievance. It covers only termination in its various forms.
  • Assuming section 2A by itself sends the dispute to the Labour Court. A reference or, where available, a direct application is still needed.

Read with: Section 2 Industrial Disputes Act, 1947, Section 10 Industrial Disputes Act, 1947

Prepared with AI assistance as a study aid. Every ruling listed was checked against the Supreme Court's own judgments on this site, and quoted words appear in those judgments; linked names open the full judgment. Read the judgments themselves before relying on them. Not legal advice.

Supreme Court judgments citing the section 2A