Social Security (Central) Rules, 2026

What it does

The Code on Social Security, 2020 leaves much of its working detail to rules, and these are the rules the Central Government made for the central sphere. They were notified as G.S.R. 344(E) on 8 May 2026, with final rules under all four labour codes notified on the same date. They set the forms, time limits and procedures by which the Code's benefits and registrations operate where the Central Government is the appropriate Government.

The page confines itself to what the site has examined. That includes the duty of an aggregator that engages gig and platform workers to share the details of the workers it already engages on the government portal, within 45 days of the Rules coming into force. The rest is to be read from the Rules themselves.

Who it binds

Employers and establishments for which the Central Government is the appropriate Government under the Code. It binds aggregators in respect of gig and platform workers. A private employer in a State ordinarily answers to that State's rules, and State rules may differ on forms and timing, so an organisation with establishments in several States may face different postures for the same obligation.

What has changed, and when

The Rules are new. The Code came into force on 21 November 2025 with the other three labour codes, and the Rules followed on 8 May 2026. The Rules are therefore the first statement of procedure under the Code for the central sphere, and there is little decided law on them yet.

What turns on it in practice

The site's note on what the labour codes cost, and who carries it, notes three deadlines short enough to miss by sequence and not by intent. The first is the aggregator's 45 day duty under these Rules, which is on the aggregator under the Code and not on a principal employer that uses contract labour. The second is the transfer to the re-skilling fund after a retrenchment, which falls under the Industrial Relations Code and its rules, within ten days. The third is the display of vacancy notices at least fifteen days before a position is filled.

The Rules also matter for the gratuity provision on a fixed-term cohort, which the site's tool applies. Under the Code a fixed-term employee becomes eligible after one year, and the Rules are to be read for the procedure. A company that has provisioned on a five-year assumption has to move its estimate and its process.

The employment practice area advises on which of the Rules apply to which establishment. A platform business should map its workers against the Code's definitions, and decide whether it is an aggregator and, if so, what it must report and when.