The Delhi High Court said the Centre enforced the Industrial Relations Code, 2020 without properly repealing older labour laws. The Court stressed that a clear “repealing notification” is mandatory and directed the government to fix the issue.
The Delhi High Court on Thursday said that the Central government may have enforced the new Industrial Relations Code, 2020 without properly following the legal steps required to repeal the earlier labour laws.
A Division Bench of Chief Justice Devendra Kumar Upadhyaya and Justice Tushar Rao Gedela observed that the government has not issued any notification clearly stating that the Trade Unions Act, 1926, the Industrial Employment (Standing Orders) Act, 1946, and the Industrial Disputes Act, 1947 stand repealed, either fully or partly.
The Bench stated,
“There has to be a repealing notification. The notification should contain the declaration of the commencement of the code, and it must also notify the repeal of these Acts. As of today, these acts have not been repealed.”
Because of this legal gap, the Court directed Additional Solicitor General (ASG) Chetan Sharma to sit with government officials and sort out the issue.
The Bench told him,
“You can issue a separate notification in conjunction with this [the notification bringing the code into force].”
The matter has now been listed for hearing on January 12, 2026. The Court was dealing with a PIL filed by NA Sebastian and another petitioner challenging the government notification that brought the new labour code into force.
The petitioners argued that the notification has created confusion and disrupted the labour justice system.
They pointed out that the notification has shifted all ongoing cases under the Industrial Disputes Act, 1947, to tribunals under the new Code, but such new tribunals have not been set up yet. This, they said, has effectively frozen labour dispute resolution across the country.
In an earlier hearing, the Court had asked ASG Sharma to investigate the issue. At today’s hearing, Sharma informed the Court that the government has now issued a fresh notification dated December 8.
According to him, this notification says that the courts and tribunals formed under the Industrial Disputes Act, 1947 will continue to hear both pending and future cases.
He told the Court that this arrangement will remain in place to maintain continuity and avoid any administrative vacuum until tribunals under the new Code are formally constituted.
The Bench accepted this notification and praised the steps taken by the ASG.
In its order, the Court noted,
“We appreciate the efforts made by Shri Sharma and further repose our trust that at the government’s end, everything required to provide a smooth transition from the old to the new labour law regime shall be done.”
Appearing for the Central government were ASG Chetan Sharma and Central Government Standing Counsel (CGSC) Ashish Dixit.
The petitioners were represented by advocates Ravindra S Garia, Sanjay Kumar, Adrija Bhadra, Sarfuddin Khan, and Tej Bahadur Srivastava.
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