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Apprentices Act, 1961

Section 32: Offences by companies

Section 32 of the Apprentices Act, 1961 explained with current 2025-26 amendments, employer controls, evidence and connected Rules.

Law Hub L8Data reviewed on 17 July 2026India-first compliance

What section 32 does

Attributes company offences to responsible persons, subject to statutory defences and consent/connivance rules.

Connected instrument: Company responsibility

Finin2min practical reading

  • Identify the apprentice category, trade, establishment jurisdiction and applicable portal before applying the provision.
  • Separate statutory apprenticeship from internships, probation, traineeships and ordinary employment.
  • Do not treat scheme reimbursement as a substitute for the employer’s underlying statutory obligations.
  • Preserve the contract, approvals, portal trail and training evidence as one auditable file.

Employer control and evidence pack

  • Executed/registered contract and portal acknowledgement
  • Training plan, attendance/work diary and supervisor records
  • Stipend bank/DBT evidence where relevant
  • Adviser approval, correspondence or order where the section requires it

Statutory text extract

Extracted from the bundled official/consolidated source. For sections amended in 2026, the current overlay above controls over older consolidated wording.

32. Offences by companies.—(1) If the person committing an offence under this Act is a company,
every person who, at the time the offence was committed was in charge of, and was responsible to, the
company for the conduct of business of the company, as well as the company, shall be deemed to be
guilty of the offence and shall be liable to be proceeded against and punished accordingly:
     Provided that nothing contained in this sub-section shall render any such person liable to such
punishment provided in this Act if he proves that the offence was committed without his knowledge or
that he exercised all due diligence to prevent the commission of such offence.
   (2) Notwithstanding anything contained in sub-section (1), where an offence under this Act has been
committed by a company and it is proved that the offence has been committed with the consent or
connivance of, or is attributable to any negligence on the part of, any director, manager, secretary or other

Compliance consequence

Failure should be tested against sections 30, 31 and 31A as in force from 22 June 2026, alongside contract termination/compensation consequences and any portal or scheme action.

← Section 31ASection 33 →