INDIA · UNION TERRITORY · WORKING TIME
Working hours under the Delhi Shops and Establishments Act
What the Shops and Establishments Act applicable in Delhi sets for daily and weekly hours, spread-over, rest intervals, overtime and night-shift work — the rules that govern employers in New Delhi. Every value below links to the source it was verified against.
- Governing Act
- Delhi Shops and Establishments Act, 1954 (Act 7 of 1954). The Delhi Shops and Establishments (Amendment) Act, 2026 (Act 3 of 2026) was published on 11 March 2026 but by s.1(2) commences only on a date the Delhi Government notifies — no commencement notification was found as of October 2026, so the 1954 text below still governsprsindia.org ↗
- Maximum daily hours
- 9 hours (s.8). Act 3 of 2026 will substitute “ten hours inclusive of rest interval and lunch break” once commencedprsindia.org ↗
- Maximum weekly hours
- 48 hours (s.8). First proviso allows up to 54 hours in a week during stock-taking, making of accounts or other prescribed purposesprsindia.org ↗
- Spread-over limit
- 10½ hours in a commercial establishment, 12 hours in a shop, inclusive of the rest interval (s.11). Act 3 of 2026 standardises both at 12 hours once commencedprsindia.org ↗
- Rest interval
- At least 30 minutes, and no period of continuous work may exceed 5 hours (s.10(1)). The interval must be fixed, intimated to the Chief Inspector a week ahead and kept for at least 3 months (s.10(2)). Act 3 of 2026 raises the 5 to 6 hours once commencedprsindia.org ↗
- Overtime rate
- 2× the normal remuneration calculated by the hour (s.8, second proviso). For the hourly rate the day is reckoned as 8 hours (s.8 Explanation)prsindia.org ↗
- Overtime cap
- Overtime is permitted only for stock-taking, accounts or prescribed purposes, capped at 54 hours in any week and 150 hours in a year, with at least 3 days' advance intimation to the Chief Inspector (s.8 provisos). Act 3 of 2026 will change this to 60 hours a week and 144 hours a quarter once commencedprsindia.org ↗
- Weekly off
- At least 24 consecutive hours of rest every week (s.17), falling on the close day where s.16 applies. Notification of 24 Nov 2025 (Schedule I entry 302) exempts all shops and commercial establishments except liquor shops from ss.15 and 16 (opening/closing hours and close day), so 24×7 trading is permitted; s.17 weekly rest for each employee is not exemptedlabour.delhi.gov.in ↗
- Women on night shifts
- s.14 bars women from working 9pm–7am in summer and 8pm–8am in winter. Notification F.No.28/Addl.LC/Exemp./S&E,Act/2021/4304-4310 of 24 Nov 2025 (Schedule I entry 301, superseding the 7 Aug 2025 notification) exempts all establishments except liquor shops from s.14 for women, on conditions: written consent of each woman for those hours, CCTV, transport from workplace to home, rest room, separate washroom and lockers, and POSH Act compliance. Act 3 of 2026 will write similar conditions into a new s.14 (adds a minimum of two women on the shift and a 6-week post-confinement bar) once commencedlabour.delhi.gov.in ↗
- IT/ITES exemption
- No IT/ITES-specific exemption. Delhi's relief is economy-wide: the 24 Nov 2025 notification covers every shop and establishment other than liquor shops for both women's night work (entry 301) and opening hours/close day (entry 302), so IT firms are covered as commercial establishments rather than by sectorlabour.delhi.gov.in ↗
Notes on Delhi
- →Act 3 of 2026 (passed 9 Jan 2026, Presidential assent 23 Feb 2026, gazetted 11 Mar 2026) is on the statute book but not in force: s.1(2) requires a separate commencement notification and none has been traced. Some compliance vendors treat 11 March 2026 as the effective date — that reading is wrong on the face of s.1(2). Watch the Delhi Labour portal.
- →Once commenced, Act 3 of 2026 also limits the Act to establishments employing 20 or more employees (new s.1(5)) and defines the 10-hour day as inclusive of rest interval and lunch break — which is a tighter rule than most states' 10-hour limit.
- →The 24 Nov 2025 exemption notification does not relax s.8, s.10 or s.11, so the 9/48-hour limits, 5-hour stretch and spread-over still apply to establishments operating 24×7 or employing women at night.
- →Delhi has not been confirmed to have notified rules under the OSH Code, 2020; secondary trackers say only Wage Code and Social Security Code rules exist. Unverified — treat the 1954 Act as the operative regime.
Verify before you rely on it. State rules are amended by notification, exemptions for IT/ITES establishments are often time-bound and renewed separately, and the Labour Codes continue to be brought into force state by state. This page records what we could verify against a named source at the time of writing — it is general information, not legal advice, and it does not replace reading your state's current rules or asking your compliance advisor.
Keeping to these limits in practice
Limits are only enforceable against a record. Workclave captures every work session with its start, stop and breaks, applies your workspace's shift and break rules, and produces the statutory attendance register from the same data — so daily, weekly and overtime totals are computed as work happens rather than reconstructed at month end. Multi-state employers can configure rules per workspace.
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