Section 21: Single application in respect of a number of employees

The Minimum Wages Act, 1948 was repealed and replaced by the Code on Wages, 2019 from 21 November 2025.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.

(1) [Subject to such rules as may be prescribed, a single application] may be presented under section 20 on behalf or in respect of any number of employees employed in the scheduled employment in respect of which minimum rates of wages have been fixed and in such cases the maximum compensation which may be awarded under sub-section (3) of section 20 shall not exceed ten times the aggregate amount of such excess [or ten rupees per head, as the case may be].

(2) The Authority may deal with any number of separate pending applications presented under section 20 in respect of employees in the scheduled employments in respect of which minimum rates of wages have been fixed, as a single application presented under sub-section (1) of this section and the provisions of that sub-section shall apply accordingly.

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 21

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