Assertion (A) : The respondent was engaged as a Safai Karamchari in a charitable trust. The dispute originated when he was terminated due to repeated absence from duty. The trust challenged the award on the grounds that it was not an 'industry' under Section 2(j) of the Industrial Disputes Act, 1947, and therefore the worker was not a workman, making Section 25-F inapplicable.
Reason (R) : The trust engaged in multifarious activities including commercial ventures and hired employees for commercial and charitable activities in an organized manner with proper remuneration.
In the context of the above Assertion and Reason under the Industrial Disputes Act, 1947, which one of the following is correct ?
AIBE - 2026,
Answer: D
The key gives Both (A) and (R) are true, and (R) is the correct explanation of (A).
The Assertion records the dispute: a sweeper dismissed by a charitable trust, and the trust's defence that it is not an 'industry' under Section 2(j), so that the worker is not a workman and the retrenchment safeguards of Section 25-F do not apply. The Reason supplies the facts on which that defence is judged. Under the triple test in Bangalore Water Supply and Sewerage Board v. A. Rajappa (1978), an activity is an industry where there is systematic activity, organised by co-operation between employer and employees, for the production or distribution of goods or services. A charity loses its exemption when it hires paid staff and carries on organised, partly commercial work.
Read that way, the Reason is what decides the dispute in the Assertion: the trust's commercial ventures and paid, organised workforce make it an industry, so its challenge fails and Section 25-F applies. The options that treat either statement as false, or the two as unconnected, miss that link.
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