Essential Services Maintenance Act

The Essential Services Maintenance Act (ESMA) is an act of Parliament of India which was established to ensure the delivery of certain services, which if obstructed would affect the normal life of the people.^[1] This include services like public transport (bus services), health services (doctors and hospitals).^[2][3] The ESMA is a law made by the Parliament of India under List No. 33 in Concurrent List of 7th Schedule of Constitution of India. Hence it maintains national uniformity by providing minimum conditions of essential services across the nation. For any violations in specific regions, State governments alone or together with other state government can enforce their respective act. Each state has a separate state Essential Services Maintenance Act with slight variations from the central law in its provisions. Hence, in case the nature of strike disrupts only a state or states, then the states can invoke it. In case of disruption on a national scale, especially railways, the ESMA 1968 can be invoked by central government.

Although it is a very powerful law, which has potential to suppress genuine demands of employees, its execution rests entirely on the discretion of the State government in normal circumstances. The law has seen little use in India, with many strikes by public transport providers or staff, doctors or Government employees, being continued for weeks without ESMA being invoked by the Union Government or the State Government. There have been instances of citizens approaching courts for implementation of ESMA, and the executive being forced by court orders to declare ESMA over a strike and the strikes being called off overnight.^[4]