Although a nationwide lockdown has been imposed in India since March 24, 2020, the relative surge in the number of Covid-19 cases in India has lead to critical measures being adopted by the Government to cope with unprecedented situation. Set out below are some of the important developments as on April 14, 2020.

A.     Extension of the nationwide lockdown:

Given the severity of COVID-19 pandemic in India, the Prime Minister of India, on April 14, 2020, announced an extension of the nationwide lockdown order till May 3, 2020. The Prime Minister in his address also mentioned the possibility of relaxing certain restrictions after April 20, 2020, in areas where the likelihood of spread of COVID-19 is less. He also emphasized and requested employers to refrain from terminating persons employed by them and eventually depriving them of their livelihood. The Ministry of Home Affairs has issued an order on April 15, 2020 setting out the consolidated revised guidelines on the measures to be adopted by the relevant authorities to contain the further spread of COVID-19. We are analyzing the guidelines and will be circulating the update shortly.

B.     Flights and trains continue to remain suspended:

Following the Prime  Minister’s announcement of the lockdown extension, the Ministry of Civil Aviation as well as the Railway Ministry suspended all scheduled domestic and international airline operations and passenger train services till May 3, 2020. Announcements by both the ministries were made via their respective official twitter accounts.

C.     Payment of wages does not qualify as CSR:

The Ministry of Corporate Affairs on April 10, 2020 released a set of Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) and responses providing clarifications as to which expenses are eligible to be considered as CSR expenditure in relation to the COVID-19 related activities. As per the FAQs, payment of salary/wages to employees and workers including temporary, casual/daily wage workers does not qualify as an admissible CSR expenditure. However, if any ex-gratia amount is paid to the temporary/casual workers/daily wage workers in addition to their wages, specifically for equipping them to fight the COVID-19 infection, the same will be admissible towards CSR expenditure as a one-time exception. This would require a declaration by the board of directors of the company, duly certified by the statutory auditor.

D.     Suggestions on Essential Commodities:

The Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade, Ministry of Commerce and Industry vide an internal letter on April 11, 2020 to the Ministry of Home Affairs made recommendation for certain additional activities to be allowed (with reasonable safeguards) during the lockdown in addition to the pre-existing list of essential activities with a view to improving the economic activity and provide liquidity to people. The annexure to the letter, inter alia, makes the following recommendations:

1.     Provides a list of additional industries that may be allowed to operate including those with minimum manpower on a single shift basis;

2.     Industries which are permitted to operate should practice social distancing and ensure all the necessary safeguards such as shift working to prevent overcrowding during the beginning and end of a shift, provide separate transport for ferrying workers or make arrangements for them to reside at the factory premises, ensure proper sanitation facilities are available;

3.     Allow free movement of all vehicles and manpower required for continuing the permitted activities;

4.    Banks and customs to accept digital documents, without insisting on the original document, subject to bonds that originals will be produced once the lockdown is lifted; and

5.     Allow employers of exempted industries to require their employees to report for work. Ministry of Labour to provide clarification regarding salary payments to those workers who do not report to work in exempted industries which are operational during the lockdown.

E.     Reiteration guidelines issued by the Ministry of Home Affairs:

The Ministry of Home Affairs whilst making a reference to the ‘Guidelines on Lockdown measures’ notified by it vide letter dated March 24, 2020 and subsequent clarifications pertaining thereto, has issued a letter on April 12, 2020, wherein it has noted that in some parts of the country the guidelines and the subsequent clarifications are not being implemented in letter and spirit and has accordingly reiterated the same such as local authorities to facilitate easy movement of workers to the workplace and back, issuance of passes to workers engaged in manufacturing of essential items, ensure issuance of requisite passes for staff and contractual labour of railways, seaports, airports and customs authorities etc. .

The letter also states that the stipulation referred to therein shall be applicable to all the areas except the areas which have been declared as containment, quarantine and under surveillance areas (hotspots) by the Government of India pursuant to the guidelines of the Ministry of Health & Family Welfare. The letter also reiterates that movement of persons and vehicles shall be subject to strict adherence of hygiene and social distancing norms as required in context of the Covid19 pandemic.

F.     Extension of Lockdown in various States: 

Considering the increase in the number of cases of coronavirus, the Governments of Maharashtra and Telangana have decided to extend the lockdown period from April 14 to April 30, 2020 and the Governments of Orissa, West Bengal, Tamil Nadu, Arunachal Pradesh, Mizoram, Puducherry have also extended the lockdown until April 30, 2020, whereas the state of Punjab has decided to extended the same up to May 1, 2020. The decision to extend the lockdown by the various state governments, was made on April 13, 2020, prior to the announcement of the national lockdown by the Prime Minister on April 14, 2020.

G.     Further relaxation by Employees’ State Insurance Corporation:

Since our previous update, the Employees’ State Insurance Corporation has vide a circular dated April 13, 2020, extended the time limit for filing and making the ESI contributions for the month of February 2020 by a further period of 30 days i.e. the ESI contribution for the month of February 2020 can now be filed and paid up to May 15, 2020 instead of April 15, 2020.

Please see here for our dedicated COVID – 19 legal resource page.

We have also updated our FAQs for employers on coping with COVID-19, from an employment law perspective. Please see here.