Free PDF guide

Shops and Establishment Registration Guide for Indian Businesses

There is no national rule. The threshold, the deadline, the certificate life and the renewal window all change at the state line. Twenty-seven states and union territories, each one read from its own Act rather than from somebody's summary.

Twenty-seven states, one row each
Every row read from the Act itself
Includes the second registration the codes added

Instant download. No card needed.

Attendo presents

Shops & Establishment Registration

For Indian employers

states, read from the Act

ATTENDO PRESENTS

What's inside

Ten chapters, and one table worth the download

Twenty-seven states across two pages, then twelve checks. Every row names the Act and the section behind it.

Chapters 1 to 2

What it is, and whether it reaches you

The five registrations people confuse it with, then the four different thresholds: everyone, five workers, ten, or twenty.

Chapters 3 to 4

The deadline, state by state

Twenty-seven rows. State, Act and section, the headcount it starts at, the days you get, and how long the certificate then lasts.

Chapters 5 to 6

Renewal, and the second registration

Certificates that never expire, certificates that die on 31 December, and the registration the new labour codes added on top of yours.

Chapters 7 to 8

The form, and what comes after

What every state asks for, then the short clocks on telling them something changed or closed. The registers you keep afterwards are a separate job, and a separate download.

Chapters 9 to 10

Penalties, and twelve checks

What two states changed their penalties to in 2025 and 2026, then the whole guide condensed to a page you can work down.

Attendo

Headcount, before it crosses

Attendo (formerly Petpooja Payroll) keeps the headcount these thresholds turn on, and the record behind it.

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Why this matters

Most guides answer for one state and stop

Search this and you will be told to register within thirty days. That is the Karnataka rule, and it is wrong in more states than it is right in.

Shops and Establishment registration is state law. Every state wrote its own Act, at its own time, and several rewrote theirs in the last ten years. So there is no national deadline, no national threshold and no national certificate. Delhi gives you ninety days and Tamil Nadu six months, against Karnataka's thirty. Uttar Pradesh will not ask at all until you employ twenty people, while Karnataka asks a shop with one. A page that gives you a single number is either describing one state or describing none. It is the same shape as professional tax and the labour welfare fund, where the rate and the due date both change at the state line.

The second thing that gets missed is when the certificate dies. Three states issue one that never expires. Three tie it to the calendar year, so a certificate granted in October is finished in ten weeks. Several want the renewal application thirty days before expiry rather than after, and charge half the fee again if it is late. None of that is discretionary, and nobody writes to remind you.

Then there is what changed underneath all of it. When the four labour codes came into force on 21 November 2025, they repealed twenty-nine central Acts. The state Shops and Establishments Acts are not central Acts, so they survived. What the OSH Code did add is a registration of its own, at ten or more workers, within sixty days. Two states have now said one registration is enough, and one of those two attached a condition that had not been met when this was written.

Every row in this guide was read from the Act on India Code rather than summarised, which is how the rest of our library is built. The hours and overtime rules these Acts set are worked through in the overtime calculation template, the leave they grant in the leave encashment calculator, and the records they ask you to keep in the statutory register formats. The same state-by-state split is why sick leave has no single national answer either.

Preview

One shop, four states, four different last dates

The same business, opening on the same day, has four different deadlines depending on where the door is. This is four of the twenty-seven rows.

Each row names the Act and the section, so you can check it rather than take it on trust.
The last column is the one nobody prints: how long the certificate lasts once you have it.
Thresholds are a headcount question before they are a legal one, so the number that decides this is one your payroll already knows.

Four states, four different answers

State	Apply within	Asks at	Certificate lasts	The Act	Chapter
Karnataka	30 days	Everyone	5 years	1961, s.4	03
Delhi	90 days	Everyone	Per the rules	1954, s.5	03
Tamil Nadu	6 months	10 workers	No expiry in the Act	1947, s.3	04
Uttar Pradesh	6 months	20 employees	While the business exists	1962, s.4-B	04
All twenty-seven	30 to 180 days				03

Key stats

Three numbers that show there is no national rule

90 days in Delhi

Karnataka gives thirty days for the same registration, and Tamil Nadu gives six months. One rule, repeated everywhere, is wrong in most states.

Source: India Code, Delhi Shops and Establishments Act 1954, s.5(5)

20 employees before Uttar Pradesh asks

Raised in 2026, and registration is now granted automatically by the departmental portal. Goa asks at twenty too. Assam asks at five.

Source: India Code, U.P. Adhiniyam 1962, s.4-B, subst. by U.P. Act 12 of 2026

60 days for the second registration

The OSH Code added its own, at ten or more workers, when the codes commenced. It sits on top of the state one until your state says otherwise.

Source: OSH Code 2020, s.3(1), read from the Code as published

Common mistakes

6 Registration Mistakes Indian Businesses Make

Using the thirty-day rule everywhere

Thirty days is Karnataka, Telangana, Andhra Pradesh, Rajasthan, Punjab, Haryana, Odisha, Madhya Pradesh, Himachal Pradesh and Puducherry. It is not Delhi, which gives ninety, and it is not Tamil Nadu or Uttar Pradesh, which give six months. Applying the wrong one either panics you or makes you late.

Starting the clock on the wrong day

Almost every Act runs the period from the date the establishment commences its work. Not incorporation, not the lease, not the current account. A company registered in April that opened its office in August has an August start date.

Assuming a small team means no duty

Fifteen of the twenty-seven states ask everyone, a one-person shop included. And where there is a threshold, Maharashtra, Gujarat and Goa still want an intimation from the establishments underneath it. Below the line is rarely the same as outside the Act.

Forgetting the certificate has an end date

Telangana, Andhra Pradesh and Kerala tie it to the calendar year, so a certificate issued in October dies on 31 December. Maharashtra and Kerala want the renewal thirty days before expiry, and Maharashtra charges half the fee again for a late one.

Missing the second registration

At ten or more workers the OSH Code asks for its own registration within sixty days. It did not replace the state one. Maharashtra and Haryana have both moved to a single registration, and the Haryana relief waits on rules that were still in draft, so the position is worth checking with your state rather than assuming it either way.

Not telling them when something changes

Rajasthan, Punjab, Haryana, Odisha and West Bengal give seven days to report a change in the particulars. Closure runs from ten days in Rajasthan to thirty in Maharashtra, and Karnataka wants the certificate itself back. These are shorter clocks than the one for registering.

Comparison

What a one-number answer leaves you with

A typical registration page

One state's rule, told as everyone's

One deadline, usually thirty days
No threshold, so it reads as universal
Silent on when the certificate expires
Written before the codes commenced
No section number to check it against

Free either way

This guide

Twenty-seven states, from the Acts

Four deadlines, and which states use each
Everyone, five, ten or twenty, state by state
Certificate life and renewal window per state
Covers the registration the OSH Code added
Act and section named on every row

Get the free guide

Twenty-seven states, every deadline and renewal window, twelve checks. Short form, instant download.

FAQ

Common questions

Is this shops and establishment registration guide free? +

Yes, completely. No card and no trial. The form asks for your name, work email, phone and city, then the file downloads straight away. The Attendo team may follow up about payroll software, and you are free to say no thanks.

How many days do I have to apply for shops and establishment registration? +

It depends entirely on the state, which is the thing most guides get wrong. Karnataka, Telangana, Andhra Pradesh, Rajasthan, Punjab, Haryana, Odisha, Madhya Pradesh, Himachal Pradesh and Puducherry give thirty days. Maharashtra, Gujarat, Kerala, Assam, Goa and Jammu and Kashmir give sixty. Delhi gives ninety. Tamil Nadu, Uttar Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and Uttarakhand give six months. Bihar, Jharkhand, West Bengal, Meghalaya and Nagaland leave the period to rules made under the Act. Tripura deleted its registration section in 2021 and put a trade licence from the local authority in its place. The clock starts the day the establishment commences work, not the day you incorporate.

Is shops and establishment registration mandatory for a small business? +

In most states, yes, however small. Karnataka, Delhi, Telangana, Andhra Pradesh, Rajasthan, Punjab, Haryana, Kerala, Madhya Pradesh, Odisha, Himachal Pradesh, West Bengal, Meghalaya, Nagaland and Puducherry ask everyone, including a one-person shop. But the Acts rewritten since 2017 set a floor. Assam asks at five workers, Maharashtra, Gujarat, Tamil Nadu, Chhattisgarh and Uttarakhand at ten, and Uttar Pradesh and Goa at twenty. Below the floor, Maharashtra, Gujarat and Goa still want an intimation rather than nothing. Tripura is the one state that asks nobody under its Shops and Establishments Act, having deleted the registration section in 2021, but that is not nothing to do: a trade licence from the local authority took its place.

Did the labour codes replace state shops and establishment Acts? +

No. The four codes repealed twenty-nine central Acts on 21 November 2025, and the state Shops and Establishments Acts are state legislation, so they survived. What changed is that the OSH Code added its own registration for establishments with ten or more workers, within sixty days, on top of the state one. Maharashtra said on 30 April 2026 that the central registration is enough, and Haryana said the same on 4 May 2026, but the Haryana relief only starts once its rules under the Code are finalised.

Does the registration certificate expire? +

In most states it does, and the period is not the same twice. Karnataka, Himachal Pradesh and Assam issue for five years, West Bengal for three, and Maharashtra for up to ten. Telangana, Andhra Pradesh and Kerala tie it to the calendar, so a certificate granted in October runs out on 31 December. Punjab and Haryana renew every year by 31 March, Nagaland every twelve months and Puducherry by financial year. Uttar Pradesh and Tamil Nadu issue something that does not expire at all, and Gujarat's runs until the ownership or the nature of the business changes.

About Attendo

Attendo, formerly Petpooja Payroll, is payroll and attendance software used by more than 40,000 businesses in India, across manufacturing, corporate offices, retail, hospitality and education. It keeps the headcount and attendance record these thresholds turn on. See what it does, or browse every free download we publish.