Payment of Wages Act, 1936
Section 3: Responsibility for payment of wages
The Payment of Wages Act, 1936 was repealed and replaced by the Code on Wages, 2019 from 21 November 2025.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) Every employer shall be responsible for the payment of all wages required to be paid under this Act to persons employed by him and in case of persons employed,—
(a) in factories, if a person has been named as the manager of the factory under clause (f) of sub-section (1) of section 7 of the Factories Act, 1948 (63 of 1948);
(b) in industrial or other establishments, if there is a person responsible to the employer for the supervision and control of the industrial or other establishments;
(c) upon railways (other than in factories), if the employer is the railway administration and the railway administration has nominated a person in this behalf for the local area concerned;
(d) in the case of contractor, a person designated by such contractor who is directly under his charge; and
(e) in any other case, a person designated by the employer as a person responsible for complying with the provisions of the Act, the person so named, the person responsible to the employer, the person so nominated or the person so designated, as the case may be, shall be responsible for such payment.
(2) Notwithstanding anything contained in sub-section (1), it shall be the responsibility of the employer to make payment of all wages required to be made under this Act in case the contractor or the person designated by the employer fails to make such payment.]
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.