Section 11: Cognizance of offences

The Payment of Gratuity Act, 1972 was repealed and replaced by the Code on Social Security, 2020 from 21 November 2025. It still applies to matters and proceedings from before that date, as the repealing law provides.

(1) No court shall take cognizance of any offence punishable under this Act save on a complaint made by or under the authority of the appropriate Government:

Provided that where the amount of gratuity has not been paid, or recovered, within six months from the expiry of the prescribed time, the appropriate Government shall authorise the controlling authority to make a complaint against the employer, whereupon the controlling authority shall, within fifteen days from the date of such authorisation, make such complaint to a magistrate having jurisdiction to try the offence.

(2) No court inferior to that of a [Metropolitain magistrate or a Judicial Magistrate of the first class] shall try any offence punishable under this Act.

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 11

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