INDIA · RECORD KEEPING
Statutory attendance registers in India
Indian labour law does not ask you to keep attendance because it is good practice. It prescribes specific registers, with specific particulars, retained for specific periods, producible on demand. This is what they are, who they apply to, and what changes when you keep them in software.
Form numbers vary by state. Form 25 is the muster roll under the central contract labour rules; each state's Shops and Establishments rules prescribe their own numbered forms and particulars. Treat the table below as the map of register types — then confirm the exact form set for each state you operate in. This page is general information, not legal advice.
| Register | Form | Prescribed by | Applies to |
|---|---|---|---|
| Muster roll | Form 25 (central rules); state equivalents vary | Contract Labour (Regulation and Abolition) Central Rules, 1971 | Contractors engaging contract labour; principal employers carry oversight duties |
| Register of workers / adult workers | Prescribed by the applicable Act's rules | Factories Act, 1948 and state rules; Contract Labour rules for contract staff | Factories and, in equivalent form, establishments under state Shops Acts |
| Wages register | Form prescribed under the applicable wage rules | Code on Wages, 2019 and rules (previously Payment of Wages Act, 1936) | All employers covered by the Code on Wages |
| Overtime register | Form IV in several state rule sets; varies | State Shops and Establishments rules; Factories Act rules | Establishments where any overtime is worked |
| Leave register / leave with wages | Form 15 and equivalents; varies by state | Factories Act, 1948 and state Shops and Establishments rules | Establishments maintaining earned-leave entitlements |
| Combined register (Labour Codes) | As prescribed under the Codes' rules | Occupational Safety, Health and Working Conditions Code, 2020 and related Codes | Employers as the Codes and state rules are notified |
Muster roll
Form 25 (central rules); state equivalents vary
- →Name and serial number of each worker
- →Nature of work and the days worked
- →Attendance marked daily, including absence
- →Overtime hours where worked
Register of workers / adult workers
Prescribed by the applicable Act's rules
- →Worker identity and date of engagement
- →Nature of work and department
- →Shift or group assignment where shifts operate
- →Date of leaving, where applicable
Wages register
Form prescribed under the applicable wage rules
- →Wage period and wages earned
- →Attendance or days worked for the period
- →Overtime wages, where applicable
- →Deductions made and their basis
Overtime register
Form IV in several state rule sets; varies
- →Dates and hours of overtime per worker
- →Ordinary rate and overtime rate applied
- →Overtime wages paid and date of payment
- →Running totals against the applicable cap
Leave register / leave with wages
Form 15 and equivalents; varies by state
- →Leave earned in the period and balance carried forward
- →Leave availed with dates
- →Leave encashed or lapsed
- →Wages paid for leave availed
Combined register (Labour Codes)
As prescribed under the Codes' rules
- →Consolidated worker, wage and attendance particulars
- →Electronic maintenance expressly contemplated
- →Reduces duplicate registers across Acts
- →State notification determines the effective date
What changes when the register lives in software
The obligation is to maintain the register, not to maintain it on paper — and electronic maintenance is expressly contemplated by both recent rule amendments and the Labour Codes. Software does not remove the requirement; it becomes the register, which raises three operational questions that paper never did.
First, completeness: does the system hold every prescribed particular, including the ones nobody tracks by instinct — nature of work, serial numbers, the running overtime total against its cap? Second, producibility: can it render the prescribed form on the day an inspector asks, without a data project? Third, retention: does it hold the record for the full statutory period and then delete it, satisfying the DPDP Act's storage-limitation duty rather than accumulating personal data indefinitely?
Employers who can answer all three are usually in a stronger position than paper-based peers, because an electronic register carries something a bound book cannot: an audit trail showing who recorded each entry, who approved it, and when. That is the difference between a register that asserts attendance and one that evidences it.
How Workclave produces these
Workclave generates attendance registers from the same approved session records that drive billing and payroll inputs — one source, not a parallel compliance dataset someone has to reconcile. Every session carries who worked, on what, for how long, and which manager approved it, with retention configured per workspace. Registers and approval trails export as CSV on every plan, including Free.
Statutory registers — common questions
Can these registers be kept electronically?
Yes. Successive rule amendments and the Labour Codes expressly contemplate electronic maintenance. What matters is that the record holds every prescribed particular, can be produced in the prescribed form on demand, and is retained for the statutory period. Software that stores attendance but cannot render the statutory format is not, in practice, maintaining the register.
Which registers apply to an IT services company?
Typically the registers prescribed by your state's Shops and Establishments rules — attendance, wages, overtime and leave — rather than the Factories Act set. If you engage contract staff above the threshold, the Contract Labour registers apply on top, maintained by the contractor with oversight by you as principal employer.
Do form numbers change from state to state?
Yes, and this is the most common source of error. Form 25 is the muster roll under the central contract labour rules; state Shops and Establishments rules prescribe their own numbered forms with their own particulars. Multi-state employers need the form set for each state of establishment, not one national template.
How long must registers be preserved?
Each rule sets its own period, with three years from the last entry being common and some records required for longer. Retain to the longest applicable period across the Acts that cover you — and pair that floor with a deletion schedule, since the DPDP Act, 2023 also limits how long personal data may be kept.
What happens if a register cannot be produced during an inspection?
Failure to maintain or produce a prescribed register is generally an offence in its own right, separate from any underlying non-compliance it might have revealed. Because inspection is increasingly web-based under the Codes' facilitator model, the practical requirement is that the register can be produced quickly and in the right shape.
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