Hospitals not industrial units: Delhi High Court

Giving relief to all big private hospitals, the Delhi High Court held that a hospital was not an industrial establishment and the Industrial Employment (Standing Orders) Act was not applicable to it even if it employed more than 100 workers.

While setting aside a single judge's order last week, a division bench comprising Chief Justice Markendeya Katju and Justice Madan B Lokur held that a hospital was not a workshop or an establishment in which articles were produced, adapted or manufactured.

"The main activity of a hospital is to cure diseases and ailments and not to do washing, cleaning, generating, cold storage etc... These are only incidental activities...," the judges observed.

The decision came on an appeal filed by Indraprastha Medical Corporation Ltd seeking quashing of orders of the single judge and a certifying officer that had held that the standing orders of the government were applicable to it as it employed 100 or more workmen and was manufacturing and selling food items to its patients, dentures and had washing, and cleaning activities on its premises.

According to the court, such activities of cleaning, generating power, preserving articles in cold storage etc are only incidental activities and will not make the hospital establishment a factory within the scope of Section 2(ii)(f) of the Payment of Wages Act.

The Bench said the Supreme Court's interpretation of the word "industry" in the Industrial Disputes Act had no application to the interpretation of the words "industrial establishment" in the Standing Order Act.