A pot culture experiment was conducted involving five each of resistant and susceptible chickpea cultivars grown in normal, sterilized and wilt sick soils in order to determine the activities of six defense responsive enzymes in their root portions at 10, 20 and 30 DAS. The study indicated that b, 1-3-glucanase and chitinase activity in root portions was significantly higher in resistant than susceptible cultivars from 10 to 30 DAS. However, pronounced increase was observed in resistant cultivars under wilt sick soil condition. The higher peroxidase activity was observed in resistant than susceptible cultivars particularly those grown under wilt sick soil conditions as compared to normal and sterilized soil condition. During 10 to 30 DAS under wilt sick soil condition, the increase in the activity of polyphenol oxidase was relatively higher in resistant cultivars than the susceptible ones. The increase in phenylalanine ammonia-lyase activity was comparatively higher from 10 to 30 DAS under wilt sick soil condition in resistant cultivars than under normal and sterilized soil conditions. The trypsin inhibitor activity was found to be significantly higher in resistant cultivars than the susceptible ones from 10 to 30 DAS. However, increase in activity was more pronounced under wilt sick soil condition than under sterilized soil condition. Based on the results of this investigation, the cultivar ICCV-96030 appeared to be highly sensitive to wilt sick condition than the sensitive national check JG-62, where as the cultivar Vishal had comparatively higher level of defense responsive enzymes under wilt sick soil condition and appeared to be more tolerant.