The object of ID Act is to maintain industrial peace. Therefore an Industrial dispute is a collective dispute meaning thereby that a redressal of grievance of an individual workman can be addressed by an industrial court when it is sponspred by a group of workmen. usually there is union of workmen in an industry. But if the employee does not have a union where he is working, his dispute can be taken up by a union of workmen in similar industry. for example if an employee is working in a newspaper establishment where there is no union, his dispute can be sponsored by another union of newpaper employees/ journalist..
Industrial dsipute should be in relation to conditions of service. ie in relation to working hours/wages/ weekly off/ overtime/ holidays etc. So a dispute which has no relevance to his employment can not be referred for adjudication. for example if a union asks for releiving its executives to attned court cases and is declined by employer, it will not be an Industrial Dispute.