Members' club not an industry where ancillary receipts are incidental to self-serving non-commercial activities under industrial law.

A members' club conducting recreational, catering, residential and match-related activities was held outside the definition of "industry" under the Industrial Disputes Act because its dominant character was self-service to members, not trade, business or a comparable commercial undertaking. The Court applied the test that industry requires organised co-operation between capital and labour for the production or distribution of material goods or material services. Incidental receipts from residential accommodation, catering, open-tournament stalls, stadium use and immovable properties did not alter the club's essentially non-commercial objects. The preliminary objection on jurisdiction should therefore have been accepted, and the Tribunal's contrary finding was set aside.

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Issues: Whether a members' club carrying on recreational, catering, residential, and match-related activities with some income-generating facilities falls within the definition of "industry" under the Industrial Disputes Act, 1947.

Analysis: The controlling test was that an activity is an industry only when it bears the character of trade, business, manufacture, or an undertaking analogous to them, with co-operation between capital and labour for the production or distribution of material goods or material services. A members' club which is substantially a self-serving institution, providing facilities primarily to its own members, does not become an industry merely because it maintains residential accommodation, catering facilities, open-tournament stalls, or a stadium that yields incidental receipts. The club's rental income from immovable properties was not shown to arise from a productive co-operation with employees, and the limited catering and match-related receipts were held to be incidental to the club's primary objects of promoting sport and serving members.

Conclusion: The club was not an industry, and the preliminary objection should have been accepted.

Final Conclusion: The Tribunal's finding on jurisdiction was set aside and the appeal succeeded.

Ratio Decidendi: A members' club remains outside the concept of "industry" where its dominant activity is self-service to members and any receipts from ancillary facilities are incidental to its primary non-commercial objects rather than the result of a systematic business or trade undertaking.

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