Question

Which of the following is not included in “The Industrial Relations Code, 2020”?

• A. Industries (Development and Regulation) Act, 1951 (IDR Act)
• B. Industrial Disputes Act, 1947
• C. Trade Unions Act, 1926
• D. Industrial Employment (Standing Orders) Act, 1946

Hint:

The Code "consolidates 3": Disputes, Unions, and Standing Orders. If you see the "IDR Act" (licensing), it's the odd one out!

Answer 1

The Correct Option is A

The labour law reforms bundled several older statutes into four new codes, and the Industrial Relations Code specifically targeted the laws governing the employer-employee relationship, not industrial licensing.

1. Industries (Development and Regulation) Act, 1951: This law is about licensing industrial undertakings and regulating their production capacity, a subject that belongs to industrial policy rather than industrial relations, so it was never one of the Acts folded into this particular Code.
2. Industrial Disputes Act, 1947: Concerned directly with resolving disputes between workers and employers, this Act is one of the three merged into the Industrial Relations Code.
3. Trade Unions Act, 1926: Concerned with the registration and functioning of trade unions, this Act is the second of the three merged statutes.
4. Industrial Employment (Standing Orders) Act, 1946: Concerned with defining conditions of employment through standing orders, this is the third Act absorbed into the Code.

Because the Code's scope is industrial relations specifically, the licensing-and-regulation statute sits outside its consolidation.

\[ \boxed{\text{Industries (Development and Regulation) Act, 1951 (IDR Act)}} \]

Answer 2

Grouping the four Acts by subject matter, rather than trying to recall the Code's contents from memory alone, makes the odd one out easy to spot.

1. Option (A): The IDR Act, 1951 belongs to the family of industrial-policy statutes concerned with licensing and capacity regulation of industries, a different family from labour-relations law altogether.
2. Option (B): The Industrial Disputes Act belongs to the labour-relations family, governing strikes, lockouts, layoffs and dispute resolution between workers and management.
3. Option (C): The Trade Unions Act also belongs to the labour-relations family, governing how unions are formed and recognised.
4. Option (D): The Standing Orders Act belongs to the same family too, fixing the basic terms of employment that bind workers and employers.

Three Acts cluster around labour relations, while the fourth belongs to a different regulatory family entirely, industrial licensing, making it the one not part of the Code.

Hence, the correct answer is Industries (Development and Regulation) Act, 1951 (IDR Act).