When conciliation fails, the law must provide a forum that is credible, accessible and swift. Industrial peace depends not only on fair wages, lawful discipline or collective bargaining structures, but also on confidence that disputes will be resolved in time. A delayed decision in industrial relations can sometimes be fatal. It hardens positions, weakens faith in legal institutions and pushes both management and workers toward frustration. In the parlance of labour jurisprudence, justice delayed is often industrial harmony denied.
The Industrial Relations Code, 2020 (IR Code) alters the architecture of industrial adjudication. Under Section 53, once conciliation fails, the conciliation officer must send a failure report to the concerned parties and the appropriate government, and thereafter any concerned party may approach the Tribunal within ninety days. This marks an important shift away from the older model in the ID Act, under which parties ordinarily waited for the appropriate government to make a reference. In theory, this should reduce executive gate keeping and...
