Govt obligations to provide for road, education cant be industry: AG

New Delhi: Attorney general R Venkataramani Tuesday told a nine-judge SC bench govts sovereign functions, fulfillment of constitutional obligations and implementation of social welfare schemes cannot be corralled under the expansive definition of industry framed nearly 50 years ago by a seven-judge Supreme Court bench.

Venkataramani told the CJI Surya Kant-led bench that on many occasions in exercise of sovereign functions related to defence or economy or to fulfill constitutional and statutory obligations, such as laying of roads and railway tracks and establishing hospitals, schools, colleges and universities, the govt may undertake certain works. An approach that mechanically attempts to sever the industrial element of a governmental activity from its broader sovereign or welfare objective risks producing results that may also be both doctrinally unsound and practically unworkable, he said.

Additional solicitor general K M Nataraj and senior advocate Shekhar Naphade, appearing for UP and Maharashtra, respectively, said if the activity undertaken by a govt is not rooted in commerce or involved profit earning, it should not be classified as industry.

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