The Registrar and the Criteria for Registration

Subscribing their names to the rules means signing the rules as members, which is the act by which the applicants adopt them.

Industrial establishment or undertaking is defined in section 2(r). It is, broadly, the place or unit where the work is carried on.

Unorganised sector, for the purposes of section 23, means any sector which the appropriate Government specifies by notification. The Explanation to section 23(1) says so.

Executive, section 2(n), is the body, by whatever name called, to which the management of the affairs of the union is entrusted.

Honorary or temporary member is a member who is not a worker in the establishment or industry concerned. Section 7(e) contemplates them, and section 21 controls how many of them may be office-bearers.

Section 5: who registers, and where

Section 5(1) provides that the State Government may, by notification, appoint a person to be the Registrar of Trade Unions for the State. Registration is therefore administered at State level, not centrally.

Two consequences follow and both appear later in this Module.

Communications go to the head office as entered in the register. Section 11(1) requires all communications and notices to a registered Trade Union to be sent, in the prescribed manner, to the address of the head office as entered in the Registrar's register. Keeping that address current is the union's responsibility under section 11(3).

Where a union crosses State lines the Registrars have to talk to each other. Section 24(3) requires notice of a change of name or of an amalgamation to be sent to the Registrar, and where the head office of the amalgamated union is in a different State, to the Registrar of that State as well; section 24(6) then makes the Registrar of the State in which the amalgamated union's head office is situated the one who registers the amalgamation.

Section 6: the criteria, and the arithmetic that carries the marks

This section has four sub-sections and they do four different jobs. Take them in order.

Section 6(1): who may apply

Any seven or more members of a Trade Union may, by subscribing their names to the rules of the Trade Union and by otherwise complying with the provisions of this Code with respect to registration, apply for registration of the Trade Union under this Code.

Seven is the number of applicants, not the size of the union. The sub-section is about who signs the application. It says nothing about whether the union will be registered.

Section 6(2): the membership test, and this is the one that is examined

No Trade Union of workers shall be registered unless at least ten per cent. of the workers or one hundred workers, whichever is less, engaged or employed in the industrial establishment or industry with which it is connected are the members of such Trade Union on the date of making of the application for registration.

Four features, and each of them is a mark.

"Whichever is less" and not "whichever is more". The test is satisfied by the smaller of the two figures. That is favourable to unions in large establishments, and students reverse it constantly. Work it through:

The requirement is capped at one hundred. Once an establishment has a thousand workers, the number needed never rises again. A union in a factory of eight thousand needs the same hundred members as a union in a factory of a thousand.

"On the date of making of the application". The test is applied at a fixed moment. What happened before or after does not decide it, subject to sub-section (3).

It applies to a "Trade Union of workers" only. An employers' association, which is a Trade Union under section 2(zl), is outside sub-section (2) altogether.

Section 6(3): applicants who fall away

Where an application has been made under sub-section (1) for registration of a Trade Union, such application shall not be deemed to have become invalid merely by reason of the fact that, at any time after the date of the application but before the registration of the Trade Union, some of the applicants, but not exceeding half of the total number of persons who made the application, have ceased to be members of the Trade Union or have given notice in writing to the Registrar dissociating themselves from the application.

This sub-section exists because of a specific abuse. An employer who learns that seven of his workers have applied to register a union has an obvious response: persuade some of them to withdraw, and the application collapses. Sub-section (3) draws a line: losing applicants does not invalidate the application so long as not more than half of them go.

Note the two ways an applicant can fall away, because the sub-section covers both: ceasing to be a member, and giving the Registrar written notice dissociating from the application.

And note the limit. More than half, and the protection is gone.

Section 6(4): the union must keep its numbers up

A registered Trade Union of workers shall at all times continue to have not less than ten per cent. of the workers or one hundred workers, whichever is less, subject to a minimum of seven, engaged or employed in an industrial establishment or industry with which it is connected, as its members.

This is a continuing obligation, not a one-off test, and the words "at all times" are what make it so.

The floor of seven is new information and it belongs in the arithmetic. Take a very small establishment of twenty workers. Ten per cent. is two, and two is less than a hundred, so section 6(2) would be satisfied by two members. Section 6(4) then says that a registered union must never fall below seven. So in small establishments the effective figure is seven, and in establishments above seventy it is ten per cent. until the cap of one hundred bites.

Two other sections attach to this duty. Section 11(2) requires the Trade Union itself to inform the Registrar if its membership falls below the figure. Section 9(5)(iii) allows the Registrar to cancel the certificate of registration if he is satisfied that it has. So the union must report the very fact that can cost it its registration.

Section 7: the twelve matters the rules must provide for

Section 7 opens by requiring two things together: the executive must be constituted in accordance with the Code, and the rules must provide for the listed matters. Both are conditions of entitlement to registration.

The twelve matters are:

• (a) the name of the Trade Union;
• (b) the whole of the objects for which it has been established;
• (c) the whole of the purposes for which its general funds shall be applicable, all of which must be purposes to which such funds are lawfully applicable under the Code;
• (d) the maintenance of a list of members and adequate facilities for its inspection by the office-bearers and members;
• (e) the admission of ordinary members, irrespective of their craft or category, who shall be persons actually engaged or employed in the industrial establishment, undertaking or industry, or units, branches or offices of an industrial establishment, with which the union is connected, and also the admission of such number of honorary or temporary members, who are not such workers, as are not permitted under section 21 to be office-bearers to form the executive;
• (f) the payment of a subscription by members, from such members and others, as may be prescribed;
• (g) the conditions under which a member is entitled to a benefit assured by the rules, and under which a fine or forfeiture may be imposed on a member;
• (h) the annual general body meeting, the business to be transacted at it, including the election of office-bearers;
• (i) the manner in which the members of the executive and the other office-bearers shall be elected once in a period of every three years and removed, and the filling of casual vacancies;
• (j) the safe custody of the funds, an annual audit in the prescribed manner, and adequate facilities for inspection of the account books by office-bearers and members;
• (k) the manner in which the rules shall be amended, varied or rescinded;
• (l) the manner in which the Trade Union may be dissolved.

Read the list for its theme and it becomes easy to remember. Clauses (a) and (b) are identity. Clauses (c), (f), (g) and (j) are money. Clauses (d), (e), (h) and (i) are membership and internal democracy. Clauses (k) and (l) are the union's own end.

Clause (i) deserves separate attention because it fixes a period: office-bearers must be elected once in every three years. That is a check on office-bearers entrenching themselves, and it pairs with section 14(6), which makes a recognition or a negotiating council valid for three years in the first instance.

Clause (c) is drawn narrowly on purpose. The rules must state the whole of the purposes for which the general funds are applicable, and every one of them must be a purpose to which the funds are lawfully applicable under the Code. Section 15(1) then provides that the general funds shall not be spent on any objects other than such objects as may be prescribed. The rules cannot enlarge what the Code permits.

The case on clause (e), and it decides a question students get backwards

Bokajan Cement Corporation Employees' Union v. Cement Corporation of India Ltd., AIR 2004 SC 245, (2004) 1 SCC 142, Sabharwal and Agrawal JJ.

Facts. The short question was whether an employee, as a result of the cessation of his employment, loses the right to continue as a member of the trade union. The High Court, reversing a single judge, had held that he does. It relied on section 6(e) of the Trade Unions Act 1926, the predecessor of what is now section 7(e), which requires a union's rules to provide for the admission of ordinary members who are persons actually engaged or employed in the industry with which the union is connected, and on clause 5 of the union's own constitution, which made any worker employed by the company eligible for membership. Clause 9 of that constitution dealt with cessation of membership and listed non-payment of subscription for three months, death and withdrawal, but not the ending of employment. The union appealed.

Held. The appeal was allowed, the High Court's judgment set aside and the single judge's restored. Section 6(e) provides for the admission of members, not for the cessation of membership. There was no provision in the Act for automatic cessation of membership on cessation of employment, and none in the union's own constitution either. In the absence of any such provision, a member does not cease to be a member merely because he ceases to be employed.

Why it matters. It answers a question most students assume has the opposite answer, and it teaches the habit that matters more than the answer: read the statute, then read the union's own rules, because between them they decide the point. It also explains something practical, that a retrenched or dismissed worker can go on being represented by his union in the very proceedings about his dismissal, which would be impossible if his membership ended with his employment.

It was decided under the Trade Unions Act 1926, repealed by section 104(1)(a) on 21 November 2025. The reasoning applies unchanged, because section 7 of the Code is drawn the same way: it lists what the rules must contain, clause (e) is about admission, and the Code says nothing about automatic cessation. What the Code adds, and the 1926 Act did not have, is the membership arithmetic in section 6, which the case does not touch. There is also an express aid in the Code pointing the same way: the Explanation to section 23(2) provides that an employee who has retired or has been retrenched shall not be construed as an outsider for the purpose of holding office in a Trade Union.

And the outer edge of who may be a member at all is the subject of the two Madras cases worked in the previous chapter. Rangaswami v. Registrar of Trade Unions, AIR 1962 Mad 231 and Tamil Nad Non-Gazetted Government Officers' Union v. Registrar of Trade Unions, AIR 1962 Mad 234 both turn on the same point that section 6(2) now makes explicit: the members must be workers engaged or employed in an industrial establishment or industry, so a combination of the Governor's household staff, or of the core civil service performing regal functions, cannot be registered.

A worked example

The facts. Meera works at a packaging unit in Wada employing 640 workers. She and eight colleagues draw up rules, sign them, and apply to the Registrar. On the date of the application the union has 61 members.

Is the application competent? Yes. Section 6(1) requires seven or more members to subscribe their names to the rules and apply. Nine did.

Does the union satisfy the membership test? Yes, but only just. Ten per cent. of 640 is 64; one hundred is 100; whichever is less is 64. The union had 61 on the date of the application, so it is four short and section 6(2) is not satisfied. The Registrar must refuse.

Change the facts: the union had 66 members on the date of the application. Section 6(2) is satisfied, because 66 exceeds 64, and the test is applied on the date of the application.

Now, after the application and before registration, three of the nine applicants resign from the union and a fourth writes to the Registrar dissociating himself. Four of nine have fallen away. Section 6(3) protects the application so long as the number who cease to be members or dissociate does not exceed half of the total who applied. Half of nine is four and a half, so four is within the protection: the application is not invalid.

Change that too: six of the nine fall away. Six exceeds half of nine, and the protection in section 6(3) is lost.

A year after registration the unit sheds workers and the union's membership drops to 45 while the workforce falls to 520. Ten per cent. of 520 is 52; the requirement is 52; the union has 45. Section 6(4) is breached, and two things follow: section 11(2) requires the union itself to inform the Registrar, and section 9(5)(iii) permits the Registrar to cancel the registration on being satisfied that membership has fallen below the figure. He must give not less than sixty days' previous notice in writing specifying the grounds, under the proviso to section 9(5), and the union may appeal to the Tribunal under section 10.

Finally, the union's rules say that a member ceases to be a member on ceasing to be employed, and it uses that rule to expel a retrenched worker. Here the rule is the union's own, and Bokajan does not save the worker: the Supreme Court's reasoning was that there was no such provision in the Act or in the union's constitution. Where the constitution does provide for it, the position is different. Advise the union, however, that the Explanation to section 23(2) treats a retired or retrenched employee as not an outsider for the purpose of holding office, which sits awkwardly with a rule expelling him from membership.

What this does NOT mean

It does not mean seven members are enough to be registered. Section 6(1) is about who may apply. Section 6(2) is the test for registration, and in an establishment of 640 workers it requires 64 members, not seven.

It does not mean the ten per cent. is calculated on the union's own membership. It is ten per cent. of the workers engaged or employed in the industrial establishment or industry with which the union is connected.

It does not mean an employers' association must satisfy section 6(2). That sub-section applies to a "Trade Union of workers".

It does not mean membership ends with employment. On Bokajan it does not, unless the union's own rules so provide.

It does not mean the Registrar may impose conditions of his own. His function under section 9(1) is to register on being satisfied that the union has complied with the requirements of Chapter III. What he may do if he is not satisfied is call for further information under section 8(3) and refuse until it is furnished.

Limits, criticism and amendments

The membership threshold is the most criticised provision in the Chapter, and from both sides. Employers argue that ten per cent. is too low in a large factory, where a hundred members out of eight thousand can register and claim the immunities. Unions argue that in a workforce that can be dismissed, requiring ten per cent. to declare themselves on the date of the application exposes exactly those workers to identification and pressure, and that section 6(3) protects the application but not the applicants.

The continuing obligation in section 6(4) is a real change from the 1926 Act and it makes registration conditional rather than permanent. Combined with the union's own duty to report a fall under section 11(2), it puts the union in the position of having to disclose the fact that may end it.

Section 7's three-year election requirement is a genuine democratic advance over a regime in which office-bearers could continue indefinitely, and it is one of the few provisions in the Chapter that regulates the union's internal life for the benefit of its own members.

Quick revision

• Section 5: the State Government appoints the Registrar of Trade Unions by notification.
• Section 6(1): seven or more members may subscribe their names to the rules and apply.
• Section 6(2): no Trade Union of workers shall be registered unless ten per cent. of the workers or one hundred, whichever is LESS, engaged in the establishment or industry are members on the date of the application.
• Section 6(3): the application does not become invalid if applicants fall away, so long as not more than half of them cease to be members or dissociate in writing.
• Section 6(4): a registered union must at all times keep that number, subject to a minimum of seven. Section 11(2) makes the union report a fall; section 9(5)(iii) lets the Registrar cancel for it.
• Section 7: twelve matters the rules must provide for. Identity (a, b); money (c, f, g, j); membership and democracy (d, e, h, i); the union's own end (k, l). Office-bearers elected once every three years, clause (i).
• Bokajan, AIR 2004 SC 245: clause (e) governs admission, not cessation; membership does not end automatically when employment ends, absent a provision in the Act or in the union's own rules. Appeal allowed.

Test yourself

1. A factory employs 900 workers. How many members must a union have to be registered, and how many to stay registered? Ten per cent. of 900 is 90; one hundred is 100; whichever is less is 90. So section 6(2) requires 90 members on the date of the application. Section 6(4) requires the union to continue at all times to have that same figure, subject to a minimum of seven, so 90 again unless the workforce changes.

2. A workshop employs 30 workers. How many members must its union have to stay registered? Ten per cent. of 30 is 3, which is less than 100, so section 6(2) would be satisfied by 3 members on the date of the application. But section 6(4) requires a registered union to have that number subject to a minimum of seven, so it must keep at least seven.

3. Eleven members apply for registration. Before the union is registered, five of them write to the Registrar dissociating themselves. Is the application invalid? No. Section 6(3) provides that the application shall not be deemed to have become invalid merely because some of the applicants, not exceeding half of the total who applied, have ceased to be members or have given written notice to the Registrar dissociating themselves. Half of eleven is five and a half, so five is within the protection.

4. State the twelve matters section 7 requires the rules to provide for, in groups. Identity: the name of the union, and the whole of the objects for which it is established. Money: the whole of the purposes for which the general funds are applicable, all being purposes lawfully applicable under the Code; the payment of subscriptions; the conditions of benefits, fines and forfeitures; and the safe custody of funds, an annual audit and facilities for inspecting the account books. Membership and internal democracy: maintaining a list of members with facilities for inspection; the admission of ordinary members actually engaged or employed in the establishment or industry, irrespective of craft or category, and of honorary or temporary members; the annual general body meeting and its business including the election of office-bearers; and the manner in which the executive and other office-bearers are elected once in every three years, removed, and casual vacancies filled. The union's own end: the manner of amending the rules, and the manner of dissolution.

5. Does a worker lose his union membership when he is dismissed? Give the authority and the reasoning. Not automatically. In Bokajan Cement Corporation Employees' Union v. Cement Corporation of India Ltd., AIR 2004 SC 245, the Supreme Court allowed the union's appeal and held that the provision requiring the rules to provide for the admission of ordinary members who are persons actually engaged or employed in the industry deals with admission, not cessation; that there was no provision in the Act for automatic cessation of membership on cessation of employment; and that there was none in the union's own constitution, whose clause on cessation listed other grounds. In the absence of any such provision the member continues. The Code is drawn the same way, and the Explanation to section 23(2) reinforces the point by providing that a retired or retrenched employee is not to be construed as an outsider for the purpose of holding office.

6. Why does section 6(3) exist, and what abuse does it answer? Because an employer who learns that his workers have applied to register a union has an obvious counter, which is to induce enough of the applicants to withdraw so that the application collapses. Section 6(3) provides that the application is not invalidated by applicants ceasing to be members or dissociating in writing, so long as the number who do so does not exceed half of the total who applied. It protects the application; it does not protect the applicants from being identified, which is the criticism made of section 6(2)'s requirement that the membership be shown on the date of the application.