Version imprimableThe New Trade Union Initiative
Secretariat, January 30, 2026
The New Trade Union Initiative finds the statements of the Chief Justice of India, Mr. Justice Surya Kant, while hearing the case, on the absence of statutory wages and regulation of employment conditions for a statutory minimum wage, filed by our affiliate Penn Thozhilalar Sangam and other unions vs. the Union of India in Writ Petition (Civil) 26 of 2026, regrettable.
Mr. Kant’s statement is incorrect insofar as the Hon’ble Supreme Court has itself held that non-payment of minimum wages as amounting to forced labour (Article 23 of the Constitution) and no employer has a right to exist if they are unable to pay the minimum wage. Furthermore, domestic workers, especially women are subject to the worst forms of exploitation at work which cannot be reversed without regulation of their conditions of work including through a mechanism of registration.
There is no evidence that industrial units in the country have been closed because of trade unions as suggested by Mr. Kant. Industrial establishments being wound-up based on data of the functioning of the Companies Act, the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code and the erstwhile Sick Industrial Companies Act indicate that closure occurred largely because of mismanagement and maleficence by company managements as well as the vagaries of the marketplace. Mr. Kant’s comments on trade unions have contributed to industrial distress in the country are entirely without evidence and are misplaced.
In fact, the provisions for closure under the Industrial Disputes Act (Chapter VB) upheld by the Hon’ble Supreme Court, were aimed at healthy collective bargaining between employers and workers and their trade union of choice. They were also aimed at protecting both workers and society at large from employers using closure as a mechanism for profiteering and graft. Sadly, employers have been allowed to violate these and other provisions of law with impunity.
Trade unions in our country were allowed under law even during the British Raj, through the Trade Unions Act 1926, and came to be enshrined in our constitution as a fundamental right within the framework of the right to freedom of association. Trade unions are the legitimate, self-governed and self-financed association of the working class and will continue to represent workers as they have for over a century and three quarters in a capitalist society.
The NTUI believes it is Mr. Kant’s responsibility to shepherd the judiciary of the country without bias, prejudice and discrimination.
Gautam Mody
General Secretary
This statement is based on the comments of the Chief Justice of India in: https://tinyurl.com/CJIonTUs
