The Notification S.O. 5320(E), 21 November 2025, appointing 21 November 2025 as the date on which the Industrial Relations Code, 2020

What it does

An Act of Parliament often says that it will come into force on a date the Central Government appoints by notification. The Industrial Relations Code, 2020 is such an Act. Section 1(3) leaves the date to the Government, and this notification, S.O. 5320(E), is the instrument that fixed it. It appoints 21 November 2025 as the date on which the Code comes into force.

The notification does not itself state any rule of employment law. Its work is the date, and the date carries every consequence that follows from the Code applying: the new thresholds, the new permissions and the new payments. It also closes off an argument. A court asked whether a provision of the Code was in force on a given day looks to this notification for the answer.

Who it binds

It binds no one by its own terms, because it does not impose a duty. The Code that it brings into force binds employers, workers, trade unions and the authorities under the Code, and the notification decides from when. The four labour codes were brought into force on the same day, so the date also marks the start of the Code on Social Security, 2020 and the other two codes for the employer that works under all four.

What changed with it

On the appointed date the Code took the place of three earlier Acts, the Trade Unions Act, 1926, the Industrial Employment (Standing Orders) Act, 1946 and the Industrial Disputes Act, 1947. Which proceedings begun under the older Acts continue is settled by the Code's repeal and savings provision, as amended by the Industrial Relations Code (Amendment) Act, 2026, which keeps the Tribunals and statutory authorities under the repealed Acts working until their counterparts under the Code become functional.

What has changed, and when

The sequence is short. The Code was enacted in 2020. The Central Government appointed 21 November 2025 as the date of commencement by S.O. 5320(E). The Central Government then made the Industrial Relations (Central) Rules, 2026 by G.S.R. 342(E) of 8 May 2026, in force on publication, and the Amendment Act of 2026 changed section 104 with effect from 21 November 2025.

What turns on it in practice

The date drives the analysis in the site's note on retrenchment, lay-off and closure under the Code. From 21 November 2025, a factory, mine or plantation that averaged 300 or more workers a day over the preceding twelve months needs the appropriate Government's prior permission to lay off, retrench or close. A retrenchment there needs three months' notice, where a smaller establishment gives one month's notice and only informs the Government. In both classes a retrenchment carries fifteen days' average pay for each completed year of service, and a separate payment of fifteen days of last drawn wages into the worker re-skilling fund within ten days.

An event that took place before 21 November 2025 is judged under the older Acts, and an event on or after that date under the Code, subject to the savings. For an employer with a restructuring in progress, the date of the notice to the worker, the date of the decision and the date of the closure may fall on different sides of the line. Each is checked against the notification before a view is taken on which regime applies.

The employment practice area uses the notification as the first reference in any advice that depends on which regime applied. A dispute about whether a retrenchment needed permission, or whether a worker is owed a re-skilling fund payment, begins with this date and then moves to the section and the rule that apply.