New Delhi, Feb. 3 -- The Supreme Court has held that a temple trust does not fall within the definition of an "industry" under the Industrial Disputes Act, 1947, and, on that basis, upheld the termination of an accountant employed by a temple trust.
However, considering the long and uninterrupted service rendered by the employee and the absence of a formal inquiry before termination, the Court directed the trust to pay lump-sum monetary compensation.
A Bench comprising Justice Aravind Kumar and Justice Prasanna B. Varale observed that "the respondent-Trust is a temple and as such, it would not fall within the four corners of the expression 'industry'."The Court, therefore, declined to interfere with concurrent findings of the Labour Court...