Registration of Establishments

In one line

Every establishment registers within sixty days, electronically, and if the registering officer does nothing the certificate is generated automatically and the fault is recorded as his.

In exam wording: section 3 of the Occupational Safety, Health and Working Conditions Code 2020 requires the employer of every establishment coming into existence after the commencement of the Code, and to which the Code applies, to apply electronically for registration within sixty days, provides for deemed registration where the registering officer fails to act, for intimation of changes and of closure, for revocation on misrepresentation or fraud, for a bar on employing anyone without registration, and for deemed registration of establishments already registered under another Central labour law.

Why the law has this at all

The same reason as section 3 of the other Code, and one more.

A regulator cannot inspect what it does not know exists. Registration produces the list, and section 122(4)(a) of the Social Security Code and section 35 of this one both hang inspection on the registration number.

The additional reason here is enforcement against the employer, and it is section 3(7). An establishment which has not registered may not employ anybody at all. That is a far stronger sanction than a fine, and it does not exist in the Social Security Code.

And there is a third idea, which is the one worth an essay sentence. The Code disciplines the regulator as well as the regulated. If the registering officer does not register within the prescribed period, the establishment is deemed registered, the certificate is auto generated, and the responsibility of such failure shall be on the registering officer. The same is done for cancellation on closure. An employer is not left waiting on an official's desk.

Some words this chapter uses

Registering officer is the officer appointed by the appropriate Government under section 3(1). Deemed means treated by law as being so, whether or not it is. Auto generated means produced by the system without an official act. Revocation is the withdrawal of something granted. Misrepresentation is an untrue statement; suppression is the withholding of a material fact. Appellate officer is the person notified under section 4(1).

Section 3(1) and (2): the application

Section 3(1). Every employer of an establishment which:

• (a) comes into existence after the commencement of this Code; and
• (b) to which the Code applies,

shall, within sixty days from the date of such applicability, make an application electronically to the registering officer appointed by the appropriate Government.

The proviso. The registering officer may entertain an application after that period on payment of such late fees as the appropriate Government prescribes.

Section 3(2). The application is made in the prescribed manner and form, with the prescribed particulars including the information relating to the employment of inter-State migrant workers, and the prescribed fees.