Yes, you are still entitled to be paid. Section 56 of the Industrial Relations Code, 2020 says that where a Tribunal directs reinstatement and the employer takes the award to a High Court or the Supreme Court, the employer is liable to pay you full wages last drawn during the whole period those proceedings are pending. A stay on the award does not switch that liability off. What does switch it off is your own silence, because the section only operates if you file an affidavit in that court saying you have not been employed elsewhere.
Part of the employment and labour law practice at S Jain & Attorneys, Bangalore.
This is written for a worker who has already won an award of reinstatement and is now facing a writ petition or an appeal by the employer. If your case is still at the conciliation or Tribunal stage, this is not your provision yet.
What Section 56 actually gives you
The provision is short and it is worth reading in its own words. Section 56 applies where a Tribunal or a National Industrial Tribunal by its award directs reinstatement of any worker and the employer prefers any proceedings against that award in a High Court or the Supreme Court. In that situation the employer is liable to pay the worker, during the period of pendency of those proceedings, full wages last drawn by him, inclusive of any maintenance allowance admissible to him under any rule.
Two conditions sit inside that sentence and both are yours to satisfy. The first is that you had not been employed in any establishment during that period. The second is that an affidavit by you has been filed to that effect in that court. Neither is optional and the second is the one people miss.
Notice also which courts the section names. It speaks of proceedings in a High Court or the Supreme Court, so a fresh round after the High Court decides falls within the same provision rather than outside it. The measure of time is pendency, which means the liability is tied to how long the employer chooses to keep the challenge alive and not to how strong the challenge turns out to be. An employer that files, obtains a stay and then lets the matter lie for three years is running up the meter on itself.
One thing the section does not address is what happens to wages already paid if the employer eventually succeeds and the award is set aside. Section 56 says nothing about refund, and the point is argued rather than settled. Assume it may be raised, and do not treat the money as a windfall that removes the need to defend the award on its merits.
Key takeaway. Section 56 wages are not back wages and they are not charity. They are a monthly liability that runs for as long as the employer keeps your award under challenge.
Does a stay on the award stop my wages?
No, and the High Courts have been making that point in plain terms this year. In an order dated 25 August 2026 in Chief General Manager v Mohammad Kareem, the Chhattisgarh High Court admitted the employer's petition, stayed the effect and operation of a Labour Court award, and made that stay expressly subject to compliance with Section 56 of the Industrial Relations Code, 2020. The employer bought relief from reinstatement. It did not buy relief from wages.
The same court took the same line in State of Chhattisgarh v Rajgaurav Singh on 14 July 2026, where the order records that if the employer complies with Section 56 within a period of sixty days, there shall be a stay on the effect and operation of the award. The stay was conditional from the moment it was granted. A worker reading such an order needs to understand what it means for him, which is that the money is a term of the employer's own interim relief.
These are interim orders of one High Court and they are not binding across India. They matter because they show the working practice that is settling around a new section, and because they give you something concrete to hand your advocate when the employer says the award is stayed and nothing is payable.
How Section 56 wages differ from back wages and from recovery
Workers routinely confuse three different sums of money. They arise at different stages, they are calculated differently, and they are enforced through different machinery.
| What it is | When it arises | How it is worked out |
|---|---|---|
| Back wages in the award | Decided by the Tribunal as part of the award itself | A judicial discretion. Often a percentage of full wages rather than all of it |
| Section 56 wages | Only after the employer moves the High Court or Supreme Court against a reinstatement award | Full wages last drawn, plus maintenance allowance admissible under any rule, for the pendency period |
| Recovery under Section 59 | When money already due under an award or settlement is not paid | Application to the appropriate Government, certificate to the Collector, recovered as arrear of land revenue |
The practical point in that table is the middle row. Back wages are discretionary and get cut down. Section 56 wages are not discretionary and are pegged to what you were actually drawing on the day you were put out.
The three ideas below are the ones to keep straight before you walk into court.
Full wages last drawn
The measure is what you were actually paid before termination, not a notional minimum wage and not a percentage fixed by the Tribunal in the award.
Pendency, not judgment
The liability runs from the date the employer files in the higher court and continues for as long as that case remains pending there.
The affidavit is the switch
Section 56 operates only if an affidavit by the worker is filed in that court stating that he has not been employed in any establishment during the period.
What exactly do I file, and where
The affidavit goes into the High Court or Supreme Court file where the employer's case is pending, not to the Labour Court that passed your award and not to the employer. That distinction decides whether you are paid.
- Get a certified copy of the award and note the date it was communicated to the parties. Under Section 55 an award becomes enforceable on the expiry of thirty days from that communication.
- Find out what the employer has actually filed, the case number, the court and the bench. Ask your advocate to enter appearance for you as the respondent worker.
- Work out your last drawn wages from your own pay records, the wage slips filed before the Tribunal, or the bank credits for the months before termination.
- Swear an affidavit stating that you have not been employed in any establishment during the period of pendency, and file it in that court. Keep the filing receipt.
- Where the court has already granted a stay on condition of compliance with Section 56, apply to that court if the employer does not pay, because the employer's own interim protection rests on that condition.
- Repeat the affidavit for later periods if the case runs on for years and the court asks for it, and keep a running account of what has been paid and what has not.
Common mistake. Waiting for the High Court to pass an order fixing the amount before filing the affidavit. The section is worded the other way round. The affidavit is what brings the liability into existence.
What happens if I took another job while the case was running
Then you say so. The proviso to Section 56 says that where it is proved to the satisfaction of the High Court or the Supreme Court that the worker had been employed and had been receiving adequate remuneration during any period or part of it, the court shall order that no wages shall be payable under the section for that period or part.
Two things follow. The bar operates period by period, so eight months of unemployment followed by four months of a job means the first eight months stay payable. And the test is employment with adequate remuneration, not any income at all. What you must never do is swear an affidavit that you were unemployed when you were not. That is a false affidavit in a pending court proceeding and it will cost you the case and more.
What if the employer simply does not pay
You have two routes and they are not alternatives. The first is to go back to the court where the employer's case is pending and point at the condition on which its stay was granted. An employer that has taken a conditional stay and not complied with the condition is asking that court to protect it while it ignores that court.
The second is Section 59, which lets a worker apply to the appropriate Government for recovery of money due under an award or settlement. If the Government is satisfied the money is due, it issues a certificate to the Collector, who recovers it in the same manner as an arrear of land revenue. That application carries its own time limit of one year from the date the money became due, extendable if the Government is satisfied there was sufficient cause for the delay. Where the dispute is about how much is due rather than whether it is due, Section 59(2) sends that question to a Tribunal, which is to decide it within three months.
Deadline warning. The recovery application under Section 59 has to be made within one year of the money falling due. Delay is condonable only if the Government accepts there was sufficient cause, so do not let arrears sit for years.
What this looks like in practice
The gap between the section and the money is almost always procedural rather than legal. Workers win awards and then treat the employer's writ petition as something happening to somebody else, so nobody enters appearance, no affidavit is filed, and two or three years later the entitlement is argued for the first time with no record of unemployment to support it. The employer, meanwhile, has had the benefit of a stay throughout. The discipline that actually works is unglamorous. Enter appearance the moment you learn of the petition, file the affidavit early, keep the wage evidence from the Tribunal record where it can be found, and treat every hearing date as an occasion to record non-compliance if the money has not come. A court that has made its own stay conditional is usually receptive when it is told the condition has been ignored.
These are the errors that cost workers the most money in this situation.
Nobody appears
The employer's petition is treated as the employer's problem. With no appearance and no affidavit, the section has nothing to operate on for the whole pendency.
Wrong court, wrong paper
The affidavit is sent to the Labour Court or handed to the employer instead of being filed in the High Court where the challenge is actually pending.
Arrears left to age
Recovery under Section 59 is limited to one year from the date the money fell due, so a worker who waits is left arguing about sufficient cause.
Frequently Asked Questions
Does Section 56 apply if the employer only appeals the back wages part and not reinstatement?
The section is triggered where the award directs reinstatement and the employer prefers proceedings against that award. If reinstatement has not been directed, or the employer is not challenging the award at all, the section does not come into play. Read the award and the employer's prayer together before assuming either way.
Is Section 56 the same as the old Section 17B of the Industrial Disputes Act?
It occupies the same ground, because the Industrial Disputes Act was repealed when the labour codes commenced on 21 November 2025 and Section 56 now carries this subject in the Industrial Relations Code. Do not cite the old section number in a fresh filing.
Can I claim Section 56 wages for the period before the employer went to the High Court?
No. The section covers the period of pendency of the proceedings in the High Court or the Supreme Court. Anything before that is back wages under the award itself, which is a separate question decided by the Tribunal.
My employer says the stay means nothing is payable. Is that right?
A stay suspends the operation of the award. It does not by itself remove the statutory liability under Section 56, and High Courts have this year granted stays expressly on the condition that the employer complies with Section 56 first.
How much is full wages last drawn?
It is the wages you were actually drawing before termination, together with any maintenance allowance admissible under any rule. It is not a percentage and it is not reduced because the Tribunal awarded only part of your back wages.
Do I have to file a fresh affidavit every year?
The section requires an affidavit to the effect that you have not been employed in any establishment during the period. Where a case runs for years, courts commonly expect the position to be kept current, so file again when a fresh period is claimed or when the court directs it.
What if I did small freelance or casual work to survive?
Disclose it. The proviso bars wages only for a period where the worker was employed and receiving adequate remuneration, and that is for the court to assess on the facts. Concealment is far more dangerous than disclosure.
Can a contract worker claim under Section 56?
The section speaks of a worker in whose favour a Tribunal has directed reinstatement. The prior question is whether you are a worker under the Code at all and whether the award is in your favour, which is decided long before this stage.
This article is for general informational purposes only and does not constitute legal advice. Consult a qualified advocate for advice on your specific situation.
