Sanjay Singhvi: A thinking trade unionist
An obituary to senior counsel Sanjay Singhvi, with whose passing the labour movement has lost a humanist, a brilliant labour lawyer and a valiant warrior
Dr K R Shyam Sundar
Published on: 29 April 2025, 06:00 am
I FIRST MET SANJAY SOMETIME IN 2010 when I was doing a project on the theme of non-standard workers and social dialogue practices in India (the first ever project initiated by the International Labour Organisation in the world at that time).
His “office” was situated in the slums of Dharavi. The office was as disorganised as it could be with poor furniture and papers generously strewn around. I was doubtful whether I was visiting the right place and the right person! He arrived a little late which is not unusual for a lawyer and that too in Mumbai. Since I was aware of his ideological orientation I was prepared for the doctrinal language of Marxism; instead, he gave me numerous live cases for his arguments against globalisation. Since the project was on collective bargaining by and for the non-standard workers in many cases I drew a blank in my field studies and I did not hope to find anything different here. However, much to my delight and relief, he gave me several documents – he summoned a couple from the plant in Pune. His trade union - the Trade Union Centre of India (‘TUCI’) - organised all kinds of unorganised workers in the labour market. I took copious notes of the conversation apart from recording them.
Many trade union leaders do impressive and even valiant work on the field but are poor in assembling their thoughts and maintaining materials. In Sanjay’s case, even though organising the documents was poor, he could articulate both orally and via pen. He continued the rich colonial tradition of union leaders being excellent lawyers and writers. By that time most Industrial Relations scholars had read Jane Cox’s brilliant critique of the SAIL judgment (2006) (as it is called) which took away the crucial right of regularisation of contract labour upon the abolition of the contract delivered in the Air India case (1996). Around the time of the SAIL decision, the Supreme Court’s judgment in the Uma Devi case dealt a severe blow to the rights of marginalised workers (casual workers). Two judgments, viz. the SAIL and the Uma Devi cases, among others, gave a mortal blow to the rights of unorganised workers. SAIL and Uma Devi judgments were haunting the trade union and working-class movement and they became very hesitant to knock at the doors of the judiciary.
As an important member of the Indian Society of Labour Economics (ISLE), in 2009, I organised a “Panel Discussion on Contract Labour in India” at its annual conference at Dharwad and invited experts from several realms. Naturally given my fresh and warm relationship and the intellectual background of Jane and Sanjay, I invited them to be panelists at the Conference. Post-proceedings, noting the rich discussion that emanated in the panel discussion, Prof. T.S. Papola endorsed Prof. Alalkh Sharma ‘s idea of bringing out a book on the panel theme.
