Physical Salary Register Requirement for Mumbai Shops: Do You Really Need It?

Is it necessary to maintain a Physical Salary Register? My company comes under the Shop and Establishment Act in Mumbai. Does anyone know the answer? Please reply. Thank you.

You need to send a requisition letter for Soft Copy exemption to the Labor Authority. Then, you can prepare Statutory Registers in Excel Sheets and take printouts.

For queries, write to me at my Gmail ID: arvino.thehindu

The Information Technology Act, 2000 permits for maintaining records electronically. No prior permission from the Labour Department is required. The records maintained electronically should be preserved with proper disaster management in place (retrieval of records in case of a crash, virus, etc).

Dear Mr. Vinod Kumar, which Deputy Director visited your factory? Has he given written directions to maintain records manually? We are living in the digital age. Permission from any authority is not required for maintaining records electronically. You seem to have gotten confused. The authority would have asked for a print of your data. This should not be construed to mean that you have to maintain records manually. All government departments have installed a biometric attendance system with integration.

If you have any problems, please revert to me. Ignorance of the law is not an excuse. What processes are in place at your factory?

Thank you.

Maintaining Digital Records Under the Information Technology Act

Section 4 of the Information Technology Act does not require anyone to stop maintaining physical records. It only refers to maintaining a scanned or digital, untamperable copy of the original physical record as evidence in court. So, if you want to maintain digital records, you need approval in writing from the concerned authorities (in this case, the chief inspector or commissioner).

You can, however, have a software-based record and keep monthly printouts for inspection. This practice is generally accepted by labor authorities, though nothing to that effect has been given in writing anywhere.