New Delhi, Aug. 21 -- The Supreme Court has held that the broad interpretation of 'industry' laid down in its 1978 Bangalore Water Supply judgment will continue to govern pending disputes under the Industrial Disputes Act, 1947, but will not automatically apply to the Industrial Relations Code (IRC), 2020.

A nine-judge Constitution Bench headed by Chief Justice of India (CJI) Surya Kant and comprising Justices BV Nagarathna, PS Narasimha, Dipankar Datta, Ujjal Bhuyan, Satish Chandra Sharma, Joymalya Bagchi, Alok Aradhe and Vipul M Pancholi, by a 5:4 majority on the maintainability of the reference, held that the earlier judgment could be reconsidered, but clarified that its reformulated test would operate prospectively.

Pending cases un...