Absence of mandatory requirement for prior written demand notice directly on the employer

A formal written demand served directly upon the management and its explicit rejection are not universal statutory preconditions or sine qua non for establishing the existence or apprehension of an industrial dispute under Section 2(k) read with Section 10(1) and Section 12 of the Industrial Disputes Act, 1947, except in the specific case of public utility services governed by Section 22. The term "industrial dispute" is defined expansively to include any real, substantial difference between employers and workmen regarding employment, non-employment, or conditions of labour, and parties need not be formally locked in direct conflict before statutory machinery is engaged. Requiring workmen to invariably serve a written demand directly upon the employer prior to approaching the Conciliation Officer would impermissibly rewrite the statute and expose vulnerable workmen to retaliatory termination before they can invoke statutory protections under Section 33. The Conciliation Officer possesses ample jurisdiction under Section 12(1) to intervene in existing as well as apprehended disputes upon receiving a representation from a trade union. (M/S Premium Transmission Private Limited Vs The State of Maharashtra and Others | 2026 INSC 87).