The nomination is Form-III now, not Form F. This pack reproduces the form from the gazette, ready to print and fill, with the windows rule 32 sets, who may be nominated, and the one declaration on it that asks about a power the Code does not contain.
The form itself, and the rules behind it.
All twelve employee particulars, the nominee table with its Aadhaar column, the declarations and the employer's certificate, as gazetted, on the last two pages of the file so you can print them twice. One addition: witness lines, because rule 32(5) needs two competent witnesses where an employee signs by thumb impression and the gazette form has nowhere for them.
The First Schedule in one table. Factories, mines, oilfields, plantations, ports and railway companies at any size, which catches small manufacturing units a headcount test would miss; every other shop or establishment at ten employees. Below that there is nothing to collect, so it is the question to settle before anything else. The same threshold decides the maternity chapter.
Section 2(33) in full, because declaration 1 asks the employee to certify every nominee is inside it and section 55(3) makes a nomination outside it void. With the trap: rule 4 prescribes a parental income of ₹14,000 a month for Chapter IV, and gratuity is Chapter V, so no figure has been prescribed for a nomination at all.
Declaration 4 asks about excluding a husband from the family. The Code has no such mechanism and never uses the word. What follows for a woman employee is the useful part, and it is not what the form implies: she does not need the exclusion, because her dependent parents and parents-in-law are family in their own right and section 55(2) lets her split the gratuity as she likes.
Sixteen columns to track who has filed, who is verified and whose duplicate went back, because section 55(7) makes you the custodian and rule 32(2) puts a clock on you. Then twenty-one citations, each read at its own provision in the gazette. It sits alongside the statutory register formats, whose Form I asks for the nominee this form supplies.
A nomination is owed at one year, again when a family is acquired, again when a nominee dies first. Attendo holds the service record.
If your joining checklist asks for a gratuity nomination on Form F, it names a form that belonged to the Payment of Gratuity Act, 1972, which section 164(1) of the Code on Social Security, 2020 repealed at item 6 of the nine enactments it lists, and the four labour codes came into force on 21-Nov-2025. Neither Form F nor the 1972 Act appears anywhere in the Social Security (Central) Rules, 2026.
The replacement is Form-III, under rule 32, and it is not a rename. The nominee's Aadhaar is now asked for at the time the form is filled, by the proviso to rule 32(2). A nomination takes effect from the date the employer receives it rather than the date it was signed, under rule 32(6). And rule 32(5) needs two competent witnesses where an employee signs by thumb impression, though the gazette form gives them nowhere to sign.
Before any of it, check the Schedule. Section 1(4) makes the First Schedule decide which chapters reach you, and Chapter V stops at ten employees for a shop or establishment. State the duty without that line and a small employer ends up collecting forms for a benefit they do not owe. The same reading decides what the appointment letter has to carry.
The deadline reads harder than it is. Rule 32(1) sets ninety days, and for anyone already past a year of service when the rules commenced that window closed on 06-Aug-2026. Then the proviso undoes most of the sting: a late nomination shall be accepted and is not invalid merely because it was filed late. An employer turning one away on the ninety-first day is refusing something the rule requires them to take.
The gap worth knowing is at the other end. The duty attaches at one year of service, but the second proviso to section 53(1) removes the five-year requirement where the termination is due to death, disablement or the expiry of fixed term employment. So an employee can die at six months with gratuity payable and no nomination on file, and the third proviso then pays the heirs rather than anyone they chose. Which is also why the exit paperwork is worth getting right first time.
Ninety days for the employee, thirty for the employer, and a proviso that takes most of the sting out of the first. Every row names the provision it rests on.
| The situation | The window | Whose clock | Note | Counts from | Provision |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Already a year in service when the rules commenced | 90 days | Employee | Closed 06-Aug-2026 | 08-May-2026 | r.32(1)(i) |
| Completes one year after commencement | 90 days | Employee | Rolling | The anniversary | r.32(1)(ii) |
| Filed after the window closed | Accepted anyway | Employer | Not invalid for lateness | Any time | Proviso to r.32(1) |
| Employee acquires a family having had none | 90 days | Employee | Earlier one is invalid | Acquiring a family | r.32(3), s.55(4) |
| And on the employer, every time | 30 days | Employer | Attested duplicate, against a receipt | Receipt | r.32(2) |
Times the word husband appears in the Code on Social Security, 2020. Declaration 4 of Form-III asks an employee to declare one excluded from the family in terms of clause (33) of section 2. Clause (33) confers no such power. It belonged to the 1972 Act the Code repealed, and it has been carried into the 2026 form from the statute that form replaced.
Source: Code on Social Security, 2020, s.2(33), read against Form-IIIWhere Chapter V starts for a shop or establishment, on the First Schedule read with section 1(4). A factory, mine, oilfield, plantation, port or railway company is covered at any size. Below ten a shop owes no gratuity and no nomination at all. Section 1(8) makes it a one-way door: cross ten once and you stay covered.
Source: Code on Social Security, 2020, First Schedule, with ss.1(4) and 1(8)What the employer owes back. Rule 32(2) gives you thirty days from receiving a nomination to verify the service particulars against your records and return the duplicate, attested, against a receipt. That copy is the employee's only proof the nomination was recorded, so filing both copies and returning neither leaves them with nothing.
Source: Social Security (Central) Rules, 2026, G.S.R. 344(E), rule 32(2)Form F belonged to the Payment of Gratuity Act, 1972, repealed by section 164(1) at item 6 of its list. Neither the form nor the Act appears anywhere in the Social Security (Central) Rules, 2026. The nomination is Form-III under rule 32.
It is not. The proviso to rule 32(1) says a nomination in Form-III shall be accepted after the period expires, and no nomination so accepted shall be invalid merely because it was filed late. Turning one away is refusing something the rule requires you to take.
Rule 32(2) gives thirty days to verify the service particulars, attest the duplicate and return it against a receipt. That copy is the employee's only proof the nomination was recorded. Filing both and returning neither leaves them with nothing.
Section 55(3) makes that void, not merely irregular, where the employee has a family at the time. A favourite nephew is not family under section 2(33), and the nomination naming him fails at the moment it is needed.
Rule 4 prescribes that parental income for the purposes of Chapter IV, which is the Employees State Insurance Corporation. Gratuity is Chapter V. No parental income has been prescribed for a nomination, so assess a parent on clause (e) itself and record how you decided.
The duty attaches at one year under section 55(1), but the second proviso to section 53(1) removes the five-year requirement on death, disablement or a fixed term expiring. An employee can die at six months with gratuity payable and no nomination, and the third proviso pays the heirs rather than anyone they chose. It lands in the same settlement as the letters that end the employment.
Form F, drafted for the 1972 Act
Form-III as gazetted, plus what it does not say
Knowing whose year is up and whose duplicate is owed back is the long part. Attendo keeps service records and what is owed on exit together.
Attendo (formerly Petpooja Payroll) is payroll and attendance software used by 40,000+ businesses across manufacturing, corporate offices, retail, hospitals and education. This template is one of the free HR downloads we publish, each built from the gazette rather than from other templates.
Form-III as gazetted, a worked specimen, an employer's register and thirteen checks, in editable Word. Free, and no card.
