Employment, Labour and Benefits

It is not an everyday instance for the apex court in the country to adopt a pro employer approach, specifically in a matter pertaining to a disciplinary inquiry initiated against an employee. In the case of Chairman-cum-MD, Mahanadi Coalfields Limited v Rabindranath Choubey [Civil Appeal Number 9693 of 2013] (Mahanadi), however, the Supreme Court of India (Supreme Court) did so.

In our previous ERGO update published on 6 May 2020, we endeavored to guide businesses through the standard operating procedure (SoP) that they should incorporate as part of their resumption plan in COVID-19 times. Since the update, several important developments have taken place, both at the Central and the state levels. The Central Government rolled out revised guidelines for Lockdown 4.0 phase with various relaxations aimed at opening up business activities in a calibrated manner.

Amidst the prevailing COVID-19 crisis, states are now contemplating taking diverse measures to offset the economic impact and boost investment opportunities. With this goal, the states of Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh have introduced several relaxations under various labour laws to ease the compliance burden on employers.

On 1 May 2020, the Secretary, Ministry of Home Affairs, Government of India (MHA Secretary) issued an order extending the nation-wide lockdown period for another two weeks beginning 4 May 2020, albeit with revised restrictions and certain relaxations (Revised Guidelines). Set out below is an overview of the Revised Guidelines:

This update is in furtherance of our ERGO coverage on COVID-19 outbreak where attempt to bring forth latest regulatory developments, occasioned by the upsurge in the number of positive cases in the country. We have set out below an overview of regulatory updates for the period between 14 April 2020 to 23 April 2020.

To curb the outbreak of COVID-19 in India, the Government of India had imposed a lockdown on 24 March 2020 for a period of 21 days till 14 April 2020. The said lockdown has now been further extended till 3 May 2020 by the Prime Minister and the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA). They released an order dated 14 April 2020, inter alia, formalising the extension and stating that the MHA guidelines issued previously on 24 March 2020 along with subsequent amendments will continue to remain in force till 3 May 2020.