The Trade Disputes Act of 1929 provided for
Answer & explanation
Answer: (d) a system of tribunals and a ban on strikes.
Passed amid the labour unrest of the late 1920s, the Trade Disputes Act, 1929 let the government refer an industrial dispute to a Court of Inquiry or a Board of Conciliation, and it put restraints on strikes and lock-outs in public utility services. Tribunals plus curbs on strikes is option (d).
- ✓ (d) The Act let the government set up Courts of Inquiry and Boards of Conciliation to investigate and settle disputes, and it restrained strikes and lock-outs, above all in public utility services.
- ✗ (a) The Act gave workers no role in management. Even Works Committees of employer and worker representatives came only with the Industrial Disputes Act, 1947, which replaced the 1929 Act.
- ✗ (c) Disputes went to bodies the government itself appointed, not to a British court; the 1946 review noted that their findings were not even binding on the parties.
Remember · Trade Disputes Act, 1929: Courts of Inquiry and Boards of Conciliation + restraints on strikes in public utility services; replaced by the Industrial Disputes Act, 1947.
Sources
- Labour Department, Government of NCT of Delhi: The Industrial Disputes Act (Introduction) ↗ “Experience of the working of the Trade Disputes Act, 1929, has revealed that its main defect is that while restraints have been imposed on the rights of strike and lock-out in public utility services … the settlement of an industrial dispute, either by reference to a Board of Conciliation or to a Court of Inquiry, conclusive and binding on the parties to the dispute.”
Question and answer: UPSC's official GS Paper I (2017, Series A) — paper ↗ · answer key ↗. Explanation: Minimalist IAS, checked 30 Sept 2026 (how we verify). ·