law: Essential Services Maintenance Act, 1968 
  2. Definitions.- 
  1.     
  
    In
  
  this Act,- 
  a.     
  
    "essential
  
  service" means- 
                       
  
   i.        
  
    any
  
  postal, telegraph or telephone service;
                      
  
   ii.        
  
    any
  
  railway service or any other transport service for the carriage of passengers
  
  or goods by land, water or air with respect to which Parliament has power to
  
  make laws;
                     
  
   iii.        
  
    any
  
  service connected with the operation or maintenance of aerodromes, or with the
  
  operation, repair or maintenance of aircraft ;
                     
  
   iv.        
  
    any
  
  service connected with the loading, unloading, movement or storage of goods in
  
  any port;
                      
  
   v.        
  
    any
  
  service connected with the clearance of goods or passengers through the customs
  
  or with the prevention of smuggling;
                     
  
   vi.        
  
    any
  
  service in any mint or security press;
                    
  
   vii.        
  
    any
  
  service in any defence establishment of the Government of India;
                   
  
   viii.        
  
    any
  
  service in connection with the affairs of the Union, not being a service
  
  specified in any of the foregoing sub-clauses ;
                     
  
   ix.        
  
    any
  
  other service connected with matters with respect to which Parliament has power
  
  to make laws and which the Central Government being of opinion that strikes
  
  therein would prejudicially affect the maintenance of any public utility
  
  service, the public safety or the maintenance of supplies and services
  
  necessary for the life of the community or would result in the infliction of
  
  grave hardship on the community, may, by notification in the Official Gazette,
  
  declare to be an essential service for the purposes of this Act ;
  a.    
  b.    
  
    "strike"
  
  means the cessation of work by a body of persons employed in any essential
  
  service acting in combination or a concerted refusal or a refusal under a
  
  common understanding of any number of persons who are or have been so employed
  
  to continue to work or to accept employment, and includes- 
                       
  
   i.        
  
    refusal
  
  to work overtime where such work is necessary for the maintenance of any
  
  essential service ;
                      
  
   ii.        
  
    any
  
  other conduct which is likely to, result in, or results in, cessation or
  
  substantial retardation of work in any essential service.
  1.     
  
  
  2.     
  
    Every
  
  notification issued under sub-clause (ix) of clause (a) of sub-section (1)
  
  shall be laid before each House of Parliament immediately after it is made if
  
  it is in session and on the first day of the commencement of the next session
  
  of the House if it is not in session, and shall cease, to operate at the
  
  expiration of forty days from the date of its being so laid or from the
  
  re-assembly of Parliament, as the case may be, unless before the expiration of
  
  that period a resolution approving the issue of the notification is passed by
  
  both Houses of Parliament. Explanation.-Where the Houses of Parliament are
  
  summoned to re- assemble on different dates, the period of forty days shall be
  
  reckoned from the later of those dates.