Conciliation Officer Missed the 45-Day Deadline? Here is How to Approach the Industrial Tribunal Directly Under the IR Code, 2020

Your dispute has been sitting with the conciliation officer for weeks. The statutory deadline of 45 days has come and gone. No settlement. No failure report. Just silence.

You want to approach the Industrial Tribunal. Your lawyer tells you to wait for the failure report. Your HR head says the same thing. Everyone seems to assume the old rules still apply.

They do not.

The Industrial Relations Code, 2020, which came into effect on 21 November 2025, has fundamentally rewritten the dispute resolution playbook. The question is no longer whether you need a failure report. The question is whether the conciliation officer’s inaction has already given you the green light.

Let us break this down.

The Old Regime: Government Gatekeeping

Under the Industrial Disputes Act, 1947, the conciliation officer submitted a failure report to the appropriate government. The government then decided whether to refer the dispute to a Labour Court or Industrial Tribunal. The worker had no direct access. The government held the keys.

This created delays. Governments sat on failure reports for months. References were denied for reasons that had nothing to do with the merits of the dispute. Workers waited. Employers waited. Justice waited.

The IR Code was designed to fix this.

The New Regime: Direct Access, Strict Timelines

The IR Code collapses three old laws into one and scraps several adjudication forums. Conciliation boards, courts of inquiry, and district-level labour courts have been abolished. What remains are conciliation officers, voluntary arbitrators, and Industrial Tribunals at the state and national levels.

The Code introduces a tiered dispute resolution system:

Internal Redressal: Grievance Redressal Committee (GRC) for companies with 20+ employees. Must respond within 30 days.
Conciliation Officer: If the GRC fails or does not exist, escalate to the Conciliation Officer via the SAMADHAN portal. Target resolution timeline: 45 days.
Industrial Tribunal: If conciliation fails, the officer issues a Failure of Conciliation (FOC) report. You can now approach the Industrial Tribunal directly, no government reference required for individual disputes like dismissal or retrenchment.

This is the critical shift. The government is no longer the gatekeeper.

Section 53: The Conciliation Timeline

Section 53 of the IR Code governs conciliation and adjudication of disputes.

The conciliation officer must send a report to the concerned parties and the appropriate government within 45 days of the commencement of conciliation proceedings. If the conciliation was initiated on a notice of strike or lockout under Section 62, the report must be sent within 14 days.

If no settlement is arrived at, the conciliation officer records a failure of conciliation and sends a report stating the reasons why the parties could not settle.

The conciliation officer cannot hold proceedings after two years from the date of the dispute.

The 90-Day Limitation Period

Once conciliation fails, any concerned party may approach the Industrial Tribunal within ninety days.

This is a strict limitation period. If you miss it, and you lose your right to approach the Tribunal. The clock starts ticking from the date of the failure report.

But what happens when the conciliation officer fails to issue a failure report within the 45-day deadline?

The Silence Problem: When the Conciliation Officer Does Nothing

This is the situation you are in. The conciliation officer has exceeded the 45-day statutory timeline. No settlement. No failure report. Just silence.

The IR Code does not explicitly address this scenario. The Code says the conciliation officer “shall” send a report within 45 days. It does not say what happens if the officer fails to do so.

This is where legal interpretation comes in.

Multiple sources indicate that a worker may approach the Industrial Tribunal after 45 days of conciliation without a settlement. The IR Code does away with the system of government reference and grants workers three months to approach the Tribunal after the report of the Conciliation Officer. Insofar as individual grievances are concerned, the Code permits the worker to approach the Tribunal directly from the conciliation officer after 45 days.

The logic is straightforward. The 45-day period is the conciliation officer’s statutory window. Once that window expires without a settlement, the conciliation process is effectively complete. The worker should not be held hostage to the officer’s administrative delay.

The Better View: You Can Approach the Tribunal After 45 Days

The better legal view is this:

Conciliation is mandatory. You cannot skip it.
The conciliation officer has 45 days to complete the process.
If the officer fails to issue a failure report within 45 days, the worker may approach the Industrial Tribunal directly.
The worker does not need to wait for the failure report. The expiry of the 45-day period is sufficient.

This interpretation is consistent with the Code’s objective of reducing delays and giving workers direct access to adjudication.

The Conservative View: Wait for the Failure Report

Some legal practitioners take a more conservative approach. They argue that the Tribunal cannot adjudicate until the conciliation process has been completed and a failure report has been issued.

Their reasoning is procedural. The failure report contains the conciliation officer’s assessment of the dispute. The Tribunal needs this report to understand the issues. Without it, the Tribunal may not have jurisdiction to entertain the application.

This view has some support in the text of the Code. Section 53(4) provides for the procedure in case of failure of conciliation proceedings. Section 53(6) empowers the parties to directly approach the Tribunal in case of failure of conciliation proceedings. The word “failure” suggests that a formal failure report is required.

The Practical Reality

Here is the practical reality.

If you approach the Industrial Tribunal without a failure report, the Tribunal may ask why you did not wait for the conciliation officer to complete the process. You will need to show that the 45-day period has expired and that the conciliation officer has not issued a report.

The Tribunal may accept your application and proceed. Or the Tribunal may direct the conciliation officer to issue a failure report first. Or the Tribunal may dismiss your application as premature.

The outcome depends on the specific Tribunal, the specific conciliation officer, and the specific facts of your case.

The SAMADHAN Portal Factor

The SAMADHAN portal is the central platform for filing labour complaints. Your complaint is assigned to a Conciliation Officer, who facilitates resolution between you and your employer without litigation.

The portal is integrated with the IR Code. Conciliation officers are required to upload their reports on the SAMADHAN portal if no settlement is arrived at. Applications for adjudication of disputes not settled through conciliation can be made to the Industrial Tribunal on the SAMADHAN portal.

If the conciliation officer has not uploaded a failure report on the portal, you may still be able to file your application. The portal records the date of filing and the status of conciliation proceedings. This provides a clear evidentiary record of the 45-day timeline.

Your Action Plan [FREE]

Step 1: Confirm the 45-day timeline

Check the date on which you filed your application with the conciliation officer. Count 45 days from that date.

Step 2: Document the delay

If the conciliation officer has exceeded the 45-day timeline, document the delay. Keep a record of all communications with the conciliation officer. Save screenshots of the SAMADHAN portal showing the status of your complaint.

Step 3: File your application with the Industrial Tribunal

File your application with the Industrial Tribunal through the SAMADHAN portal. Attach all relevant documents, including the date of filing with the conciliation officer and evidence of the 45-day expiry.

Step 4: Be prepared for objections

The employer may object that you have not obtained a failure report. Be prepared to argue that the 45-day expiry is sufficient and that the conciliation officer’s delay should not prejudice your rights.

The Bottom Line

The IR Code has given workers direct access to the Industrial Tribunal without government reference. The 45-day conciliation period is the officer’s statutory window. If the officer fails to issue a failure report within that window, the worker has a strong argument that the conciliation process is complete and the Tribunal can be approached.

The conservative approach is to wait for the failure report. The better approach, consistent with the Code’s objective of reducing delays, is to approach the Tribunal after 45 days and let the Tribunal decide whether the failure report is necessary.

Either way, the days of waiting indefinitely for government referrals are over. The IR Code has changed the game. It is time to play by the new rules.

Disclaimer:This content is provided for educational and informational purposes only. It is based on available Central notifications, rules, and codes as of July 2026, including the Industrial Relations Code, 2020 (notified 21 November 2025), the Industrial Relations (Removal of Difficulties) Order, 2025, and the Draft Industrial Relations (Central) Rules, 2025. The interpretation of Section 53 of the IR Code regarding the requirement of a failure report before approaching the Industrial Tribunal is a matter of legal debate and may vary depending on the specific Tribunal, the specific conciliation officer, and the specific facts of the case. Labour being a concurrent subject under the Indian Constitution, State-specific rules and notifications may impose additional or different obligations. This material does not constitute formal legal advice, nor does it create a lawyer-client relationship. Readers are strongly advised to consult qualified legal counsel for advice tailored to their specific factual circumstances. Laws, rules, and judicial interpretations are subject to change, and the information herein should not be relied upon as a substitute for professional legal guidance.