The Madhya Pradesh Shops & Establishments Act 1958

Summary

The Madhya Pradesh Shops and Establishments Act, and Rules, are applicable to all the shops and commercial establishments in the whole of the Madhya Pradesh State.

The Act is enacted for the purpose of protecting the rights of employees. The Act provides regulations of the payment of wages, terms of services, work hours, rest intervals, overtime work, opening and closing hours, closed days, holidays, leaves, maternity leave and benefits, work conditions, rules for employment of children, records maintenance, etc.

Definitions

Commercial Establishment means an establishment which carries on any business, trade or profession or any work in connection with, or incidental or ancillary to, any business, trade or profession and includes –

• a society registered or deemed to have been registered under the Madhya Pradesh Societies Registration Act, 1959 (1 of 1960)2, and a charitable or other trust, whether registered or not which carries on whether for gain or not, any business, trade or profession or work in connection with or incidental or ancillary to such business, trade or profession;
• an establishment which carries on the business of advertising, commission agency, forwarding or commercial agency or which is a clerical department of a factory or of any industrial or commercial undertaking;
• an insurance company, joint stock company, bank, broker’s office and exchange;

but does not include a factory, shop, residential hotel, restaurant, eating- house, theatre or other place of public amusement or entertainment;

Establishment means a shop, commercial establishment,residential hotel, restaurant, eating-house, theatre, or other place of public amusement or entertainment to which this Act applies and includes such other. establishment of like nature as the Government may, by notification declare to be an establishment for the purposes of this Act;

Shop means any premises where goods are sold, either by retail or wholesale or both or where services are rendered to customers, and includes an office, a store room, godown, warehouse or workplace, whether in the same premises or otherwise used in connection with such trade or business but does includes factory, a commercial establishment, residential hotel, restaurant, eatinghouse, theatre, or other place of public amusement or entertainment or a shop attached to a factory where the persons employed in the shop are allowed the benefits provided for workers under the Factories Act, 1948 (63 of 1948).

Registration

Every establishment to which this Act applies shall be registered within thirty days from the date on which this Act applies to an establishment, its employer shall send to the Inspector of the area concerned a statement, in the prescribed form, together with such fees, as may be prescribed, containing –

• the name of the employer, the manager and the person holding positions of management, if any;
• the postal address of and the date of starting the business by the establishment;
• the name, if any, of the establishment;
• the category of the establishment, i.e. whether it is a shop, commercial establishment, residential hotel, restaurant, eatinghouse, theatre, or other place of public amusement or entertainment; and
• such other particulars, as may be prescribed.

On receipt of the statement and the fees, the Inspector shall, on being satisfied about the correctness of the statement, register the establishment in the register of establishment in such manner as may be prescribed and shall issue in the prescribed form, a registration certificate to the employer. The registration certificate shall be prominently displayed at the establishment.

In the event of any doubt or difference of opinion between an employer and the Inspector as to the category to which an establishment should belong the Inspector shall refer the matter to the Labour Commissioner who shall, after such inquiry as he thinks proper, decide the category of such establishment and his decision shall be final for the purposes of this Act.

Exemptions

Nothing in this Act shall apply to –

• persons occupying positions of management and declared as such under clause (a) of sub-section (2) of section 6 or employed in a confidential capacity not exceeding ten percent of the total number of the employees in the establishment or three in number, whichever is less;
• persons whose work is inherently intermittent such as traveller, canvasser, a watchman or a caretaker;
• persons exclusively engaged in preparatory or complementary work, such as clearing or forwarding clerks, responsible for the despatch of goods by rail or other means of communication and for customs formalities or messengers;
• persons exclusively employed in the collection, delivery or conveyance of goods;
• offices of Union or State Government or of local authorities and of the Reserve Bank of India, the State Bank of India and the Life Insurance Corporation;
• establishment for the treatment or the care of the sick, infirm, destitute or mentally unfit;
• bazars, fairs or exhibitions for the sale of works for charitable or other purposes from which no profit is derived;
• stalls and refreshment rooms at railway stations, or railway dining cars;
• clubs not being residential clubs; and
• any other class of establishments or class of persons which the Government may, by notification, exempt from the operation of this Act:

Provided that if in the opinion of the State Government the circumstances existing in any particular class of cases hereinbefore mentioned requires that all or any of the provisions of this Act should be extended thereto, the State Government may, by notification extend to such class of cases all or any of the provisions of this Act and thereupon such provisions shall apply to such class of cases.

Compliances

References

• Madhya Pradesh Shops and Establishments Act, 1958
• Madhya Pradesh Shops and Establishments Rules, 1959
• Madhya Pradesh Shops - E Registration