Employment, Labour and Benefits

In its recent ruling in the case of Deepak Kumar Radheshyam Khurana and Others v Mumbai Port Trust and Another [Writ Petition (L) Number 17132 of 2021], the Bombay High Court (Court) ruled in favour of the Mumbai Port Trust (MPT) (the employer in this case) requiring and observing a higher degree of checking and monitoring in the case of employees who have not been vaccinated.

Back in June this year, the Employees’ Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO) issued a circular (June Circular) mandating seeding of employees’ Aadhaar number with their Universal Account Number (UAN) as a pre-condition to filing of electronic challan-cum-return (ECR) by employers in respect of employees’ provident fund contributions. Right from the time it became effective (1 June 2021), the June Circular attracted widespread attention and even criticism from certain quarters.

Through its notification published in the Official Gazette on 13 August 2021, the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) has brought into effect (immediately from 13 August 2021) the SEBI (Share Based Employee Benefits and Sweat Equity) Regulations, 2021 (2021 Regulations). The 2021 Regulations have replaced the SEBI (Issue of Sweat Equity) Regulations, 2002 (Sweat Equity Regulations) and the SEBI (Share Based Employee Benefits) Regulations, 2014 (SBEB Regulations), and the new regime will assume relevance even for existing share-based benefit schemes.