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Industrial Disputes Act, 1947 · Chapter IV: Procedure, Powers and Duties of Authorities

Section 17B: Payment of full wages to workman pending proceedings in higher courts

The Industrial Disputes Act, 1947 was repealed and replaced by the Industrial Relations Code, 2020 from 21 November 2025. It still applies to matters and proceedings from before that date, as the repealing law provides.

In plain words

If a Labour Court or Tribunal orders a workman's reinstatement and the employer challenges it in the High Court or Supreme Court, the employer must pay the workman full last-drawn wages while the case is pending.

  • The workman must file an affidavit that they have not been employed elsewhere during that time.
  • No wages are payable for any period in which the court finds the workman was employed with adequate pay.

A simplified explanation, prepared with AI assistance from the official text below and checked automatically against it for numbers and cross-references. The official text is the law and prevails over this summary. Not legal advice.

Read the in-depth explanation, with key Supreme Court rulings ↓

Official text

Where in any case, a Labour Court, Tribunal or National Tribunal by its award directs reinstatement of any workman and the employer prefers any proceedings against such award in a High Court or the Supreme Court, the employer shall be liable to pay such workman, during the period of pendency of such proceedings in the High Court or the Supreme Court, full wages last drawn by him, inclusive of any maintenance allowance admissible to him under any rule if the workman had not been employed in any establishment during such period and an affidavit by such workman had been filed to that effect in such Court:

Provided that where it is proved to the satisfaction of the High Court or the Supreme Court that such workman had been employed and had been receiving adequate remuneration during any such period or part thereof, the Court shall order that no wages shall be payable under this section for such period or part, as the case may be.]

Source: India Code (Legislative Department), the text of the Act as it stood before its repeal. Words in square brackets [ ] were inserted or substituted by later amending Acts, and *** marks words omitted by an amendment. The amendment footnotes are not reproduced here. Official text on India Code.

Understanding this section

When an award orders reinstatement and the employer challenges it in the High Court or the Supreme Court, section 17B makes the employer pay the workman full wages last drawn while the challenge is pending, if the workman files an affidavit that they are not employed elsewhere.

Purpose

An award of reinstatement can be stayed for years by a writ petition or appeal. Section 17B stops the workman from being left without any income in that time. It is a minimum, not a full payment of what the award gives.

If the court is satisfied the workman was employed and earning adequate pay during any period, no wages are payable for that period.

Relation to other interim orders

The section sets a floor. It does not stop the High Court from passing a different interim order suited to the case, for example directing payment of regular salary. Amounts paid under section 17B are generally not recoverable even if the employer later wins, because they are paid under a statutory direction, but anything paid above that floor may be ordered to be refunded.

Key Supreme Court rulings

  • Regional Authority, Dena Bank v. Ghanshyam 2001 INSC 267

    Section 17B does not prevent the court from passing appropriate interlocutory orders. Where the High Court directed payment at the regular scale, the employer could recover the excess over the section 17B amount if it succeeded.

  • Manju Saxena v. Union of India 2018 INSC 1141

    Dealt with refund of amounts received during the pendency of the employer's writ petition, after interim maintenance under section 17B had been granted.

Common mistakes

  • Forgetting the affidavit of non-employment, which is a condition of the payment.
  • Treating section 17B wages as the measure of back wages under the award.

Read with: Section 11A Industrial Disputes Act, 1947

Prepared with AI assistance as a study aid. Every ruling listed was checked against the Supreme Court's own judgments on this site, and quoted words appear in those judgments; linked names open the full judgment. Read the judgments themselves before relying on them. Not legal advice.

Supreme Court judgments citing the section 17B