The Remaining Provisions of the Code

In one line

Chapter XIV holds everything the Code still needed: a standstill on conditions of service while a dispute is pending, protection for the worker who refuses to join an illegal strike, the right to be represented, the exclusion of the civil courts, the powers to exempt and to make rules, and the power to remove difficulties.

In exam wording: sections 90 to 103 of the Industrial Relations Code 2020 contain its miscellaneous provisions; section 90 requires conditions of service to remain unchanged during the pendency of proceedings, save with the express permission in writing of the authority before which the proceeding is pending, and makes special provision for protected workers; section 93 protects a person who refuses to take part in an illegal strike or lock-out; section 94 governs the representation of parties; section 97 bars the jurisdiction of civil courts and the grant of injunctions; section 98 protects action taken in good faith; sections 99 and 100 contain the rule-making and delegation powers; section 101 empowers the amendment of the Schedules; and section 103 is the power to remove difficulties.

Why the law has this at all

A statute of a hundred and four sections cannot put everything in a themed Chapter. What is left over falls into four kinds, and organising them by kind is how to remember them.

Protections that had nowhere else to go. Sections 90, 91 and 93 protect a worker while a dispute is running, or because he refused to join an illegal stoppage. They could have sat in Chapter VII, and they did not.

Machinery that serves the whole Code. Sections 92, 94 and 95 deal with transferring proceedings, representing parties and interpreting awards.

Jurisdictional walls. Sections 96, 97 and 98 keep the civil courts out, let the Government exempt establishments, and protect those who act in good faith.

Powers. Sections 99 to 103: rules, delegation, amendment of the Schedules, a consequential amendment, and the power to remove difficulties.

Some words this chapter uses

Pendency means the period during which a proceeding is running, from its commencement to its conclusion. Section 60 fixes both for each forum.

Protected worker is an office-bearer of a registered Trade Union in the establishment who is recognised as such under section 90, and who receives a stronger protection than an ordinary worker while a proceeding is pending.

Standstill is the shorthand for what section 90(1) imposes: the conditions of service stay as they were.

Express permission in writing is what section 90(1) requires before an employer may alter conditions or punish in a matter connected with a pending dispute.

Removal of difficulties is the standard power, in section 103, allowing the Central Government to make provisions to deal with problems in giving effect to a new statute.