Read section numbers with their conditions

These fifty selected sections form a revision map of the Industrial Relations Code, 2020. They are editorial priorities, not an official UPSC list. The Code consolidates the trade-union, standing-order and industrial-dispute framework. For a current-law answer, read the enacted provision with applicable commencement notifications, rules and subsequent amendments. The selection below concentrates on institutions, thresholds, representation, dispute resolution and employment adjustment.

A one-liner is useful only when it preserves the controlling condition. Write the number, subject, authority, threshold, reference period and exception on the same card. For example, the 300-worker standing-order test and the 300-worker Chapter X test do not use identical wording. Similarly, registration of a union and recognition as a negotiating union are different legal questions. This guide deliberately highlights those distinctions.

Selected sections 1–10

1. Section 2 — Definitions: Begin with worker, employer, industry, industrial dispute, strike, retrenchment and wages; exclusions and chapter-specific meanings can change the answer.

2. Section 3 — Works Committee: For the specified 100-worker threshold and reference period, the appropriate government may require a committee; this is not the same mechanism as the GRC.

3. Section 4 — Grievance Redressal Committee: Industrial establishments employing twenty or more workers require one or more GRCs for individual grievances; representation and procedure require separate attention.

4. Section 5 — Registrar of Trade Unions: The State Government appoints the Registrar and may appoint additional officers; distinguish this registration function from bargaining recognition by the employer.

5. Section 6 — Registration criteria: Seven members are not the whole test: the worker-union membership requirement also uses ten percent or one hundred workers, whichever is less, subject to seven.

6. Section 7 — Union constitution and rules: Registration depends on a properly constituted executive and rules addressing the prescribed statutory matters; a union’s name alone does not establish compliance.

7. Section 8 — Registration application: Applications go to the Registrar with required declarations and documents; electronic submission does not remove the obligation to supply legally required particulars.

8. Section 9 — Registration and cancellation: The Registrar assesses compliance and handles registration and specified cancellation grounds; keep procedural safeguards distinct from the substantive grounds for cancellation.

9. Section 10 — Appeal on registration: An aggrieved person may approach the Tribunal against the specified registration decisions; the prescribed period and sufficient-cause provisions matter in procedural questions.

10. Section 12 — Corporate status: A registered union has a continuing legal identity, can hold property and contract, and can sue or be sued in its registered name.

Selected sections 11–20

11. Section 14 — Negotiating union or council: With multiple registered unions, 51 percent support identifies the sole negotiating union; otherwise the council framework uses the specified 20-percent support threshold.

12. Section 15 — Union funds: General funds and a separate political fund have different purposes and safeguards; membership should not be confused with compulsory political-fund contribution.

13. Section 16 — Civil immunity: Specified acts connected with industrial disputes receive limited civil protection; do not expand this into a universal immunity for every act by a union member.

14. Section 17 — Criminal conspiracy: The provision protects specified agreements linked to lawful union objects but does not protect an agreement to commit an offence; the exception is essential.

15. Section 19 — Inspection of books: Members and office-bearers have inspection rights over specified union records in accordance with union rules; transparency is part of internal union governance.

16. Section 20 — Membership of minors: A person aged fourteen employed in a non-hazardous industry may join subject to the provision; membership eligibility differs from office-bearer eligibility.

17. Section 21 — Office-bearer disqualification: Age and specified conviction-related conditions affect eligibility for union executive office; do not apply the fourteen-year membership rule to executive office.

18. Section 22 — Union disputes: The Tribunal addresses specified disputes involving unions and members; identify the parties and dispute category before selecting the appropriate forum.

19. Section 23 — Connected office-bearers: The required connection of office-bearers with the industry differs between unorganised-sector unions and other unions; read the relevant category before applying a proportion.

20. Section 24 — Name change and amalgamation: Union name changes and amalgamation involve distinct consent and procedural requirements; one approval percentage should not be copied into the other process.

Selected sections 21–30

21. Section 25 — Dissolution: Notice of dissolution requires the specified signatures and must be sent within fourteen days; distinguish dissolution from cancellation by the Registrar.

22. Section 26 — Annual returns: Registered unions must provide annual audited information and specified updates; registration is accompanied by continuing reporting obligations rather than a one-time filing only.

23. Section 28 — Standing-order coverage: The chapter applies at the 300-worker threshold with its stated preceding-twelve-month reference; do not confuse this test with Chapter X’s average-per-working-day formulation.

24. Section 29 — Model standing orders: The Central Government makes model standing orders; the Code also addresses their temporary application pending operation of certified standing orders.

25. Section 30 — Drafting and certification: Employers prepare and consult on draft standing orders through the statutory process; model adoption and certification have specific conditions rather than an unrestricted shortcut.

26. Section 32 — Standing-order appeals: Specified affected parties may appeal certification decisions; learn the appeal stage separately from the original consultation and certification stages.

27. Section 33 — Operation of standing orders: The operative date depends on whether an appeal was filed; certification, communication and commencement are related but distinct procedural events.

28. Section 35 — Modification: Certified standing orders have a restriction on early modification subject to agreement and statutory conditions; stability does not mean they can never be changed.

29. Section 37 — Interpretation: Questions about application or interpretation of certified standing orders can be referred to the Tribunal through the specified route; interpretation differs from fresh certification.

30. Section 38 — Disciplinary proceedings and subsistence: The provision addresses inquiry timing and subsistence allowance during suspension; the rate can depend on duration and responsibility for delay.

Selected sections 31–40

31. Section 40 — Notice of change: Changes to specified service conditions require notice and observance of the statutory interval, subject to exceptions; not every administrative adjustment attracts identical treatment.

32. Section 42 — Voluntary arbitration: Employer and workers may refer an existing or apprehended dispute through a written agreement; arbitration is distinct from conciliation and tribunal adjudication.

33. Section 43 — Conciliation officers: The appropriate government appoints officers to mediate and promote settlement; a conciliator’s settlement role is different from a tribunal’s adjudicatory role.

34. Section 44 — Industrial Tribunals: Tribunals perform adjudicatory and other assigned functions; bench composition depends on the matter, so avoid assuming every proceeding uses an identical bench.

35. Section 46 — National Industrial Tribunal: The Central Government may constitute this forum for disputes of national importance or involving establishments in more than one State under the stated conditions.

36. Section 50 — Relief in termination disputes: The Tribunal has specified powers concerning discharge, dismissal or termination; the provision must be read with the dispute, evidence and relief framework.

37. Section 53 — Conciliation and adjudication route: The section links conciliation proceedings and subsequent access to adjudication; note the procedural stages instead of treating failed conciliation as automatic substantive victory.

38. Section 57 — Binding effect: Private settlements and settlements reached through conciliation can bind different groups; identify the manner of settlement before deciding who is bound.

39. Section 58 — Duration of settlements and awards: Commencement, operating period and continuing binding effect are separate issues; expiry of the stated period does not always end every obligation immediately.

40. Section 59 — Recovery of money: The Code provides a recovery mechanism for specified amounts due to workers; identify the source of the entitlement before applying the recovery process.

Selected sections 41–50

41. Section 62 — Strikes and lockouts: The sixty-day notice window, fourteen-day waiting restriction and proceeding-related prohibitions must be read together; a single remembered number is insufficient.

42. Section 63 — Illegality: A strike or lockout becomes illegal through the specified statutory contraventions; disagreement with a demand is not by itself the legal test.

43. Section 66 — Continuous service: Continuity includes specified interruptions and deeming rules; do not equate continuous service with attendance on every calendar day without interruption.

44. Section 70 — Retrenchment conditions: The ordinary framework includes notice or pay and compensation requirements for covered workers; distinguish it from the special prior-permission regime.

45. Section 71 — Retrenchment procedure: The usual last-in-first-out principle operates within the relevant worker category, with the Code allowing recorded reasons for departure in the stated circumstances.

46. Section 72 — Re-employment: Where recruitment follows retrenchment within the specified period, retrenched workers receive the prescribed opportunity and preference; the provision is not an unconditional job guarantee.

47. Section 77 — Special Chapter X coverage: The baseline is 300 workers on average per working day in the preceding twelve months, or a higher notified number, with seasonal/intermittent exclusions.

48. Section 79 — Special retrenchment conditions: Covered establishments face the Chapter X notice and prior-permission framework; do not substitute the ordinary section 70 procedure without testing chapter applicability.

49. Section 80 — Special closure procedure: Prior permission for closure under Chapter X has its own application and timing rules; closure notice and closure permission are not interchangeable.

50. Section 83 — Worker re-skilling fund: The fund includes an employer contribution linked to fifteen days’ last-drawn wages for a retrenched worker, or another notified number of days.

The threshold sheet to revise twice

Five short application checks

How to avoid old-Act and new-Code confusion

Label every revision sheet with its legal instrument. The Industrial Disputes Act, the Trade Unions Act and the Industrial Employment (Standing Orders) Act remain important historical and comparative study references, but their section numbers cannot simply be carried into the Code. If a previous-year question expressly asks under an older Act, answer in that historical frame. If the question asks current law, check the applicable Code framework and implementation material.

Do not replace every older threshold with 300. The number relates to particular chapters and does not erase every protection below that size. A smaller establishment can still face ordinary notice, compensation, grievance or other obligations depending on the provision. The correct method is to identify the legal issue first and then test that provision’s coverage, rather than selecting a number because it is prominent in a summary chart.

Three-pass revision plan

First pass: read the fifty section subjects and locate each in the official text. Second pass: hide the number and retrieve it from the subject, then explain one exception. Third pass: solve short cases combining two provisions, such as recognition and registration or ordinary and special retrenchment. Record mistakes as threshold, authority, timing or scope errors. This classification makes the next revision session precise.

Use the official rules for forms and procedural details rather than inventing a universal filing process. Where a monetary amount or percentage can be changed by notification, retain the statutory baseline and note the applicable notification separately. The aim is an accurate legal map with clear boundaries, not the longest possible list of memorised numbers.

Continue your preparation

Detailed IR Code notes · Labour-Code practice guide

Sources and editorial notes

Official Industrial Relations Code, 2020 · Industrial Relations Central Rules notification

Practice questions and worked examples are prepared by CrackTarget. They are not claimed as previous-year questions unless an official paper and question reference are explicitly supplied. Use the recruitment notice applicable to your post for the final syllabus and examination instructions.

Related CrackTarget resources: Compare provisions with the old Labour Acts vs new Labour Codes chart, revise the Labour Codes and Social Security one-liners, and practise using the UPSC EPFO APFC 2026 mock tests.