Section 19: Time-limit for payment of bonus

The Payment of Bonus Act, 1965 was repealed and replaced by the Code on Wages, 2019 from 21 November 2025. It still applies to matters and proceedings from before that date, as the repealing law provides.

[All amounts] payable to an employee by way of bonus under this Act shall be paid in cash by his employer—

(a) where there is a dispute regarding payment of bonus pending before any authority under section 22, within a month from the date on which the award becomes enforceable or the settlement comes into operation, in respect of such dispute;

(b) in any other case, within a period of eight months from the close of the accounting year:

Provided that the appropriate Government or such authority as the appropriate Government may specify in this behalf may, upon an application made to it by the employer and for sufficient reasons, by order, extend the said period of eight months to such further period or periods as it thinks fit; so, however, that the total period so extended shall not in any case exceed two years. * * * * *. * * * * *.

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.

Supreme Court judgments citing the section 19

No Supreme Court judgment in our database cites this section yet.