Shop and establishment registration: 2026 state rules and steps

The quick answer

Shop and establishment registration is the record a state labour department keeps of every shop, office, restaurant, hotel and other commercial establishment that hires people. Each state runs it under its own Shops and Establishments Act, so the form, the fee and even whether you need a certificate depend on the state. Since late 2025 the biggest states have changed the rules: Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh, Punjab and Gujarat now issue a registration certificate only to establishments with 20 or more workers, and smaller ones file a one-time online intimation instead (or, in Uttar Pradesh, are outside the Act altogether). Delhi still registers every shop, online, free and on the spot.

This guide sets out who needs what in each state as of 9 November 2026, the documents and steps, what the certificate is used for (a current account, a landlord, a tender), how it differs from GST, Udyam, FSSAI and the municipal trade licence, and how many shops, restaurants and offices sit in each state in Starleads' data.

What a shop act licence, gumasta or shop and establishment certificate is

The same registration goes by several names. Officially it is a registration certificate under the state's Shops and Establishments Act. Business owners call it a shop act licence, a shop licence or, in Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra, a gumasta licence (the MP Online service still lists it as "Gumasta Registration"). In Karnataka and Punjab the law is the Shops and Commercial Establishments Act. All of them are the same thing: the labour department's record that your establishment exists, who runs it, how many people work there and what it does.

The Acts are labour laws. They exist to fix working hours, weekly holidays, leave, overtime pay, the employment of women at night and the registers an employer must keep. Registration is how the state knows whom those rules apply to. That is why the trigger is usually the number of workers, not turnover, and why a one-person online business run from home may fall outside the Act while a ten-person office above a shop falls inside it.

"Establishment" is wider than it sounds. The Acts usually cover:

• Shops: retail and wholesale, from a kirana store to a showroom, and godowns attached to them.
• Commercial establishments: offices of companies, LLPs, partnerships and professionals (chartered accountants, lawyers, consultants), IT and back offices, banks, insurance branches, coaching centres.
• Hospitality and entertainment: hotels, restaurants, eating houses, cafés, cinemas and theatres.

Factories are normally left out, because they are registered under factory and safety law instead. In 2016 the Union labour ministry circulated a model Shops and Establishments Bill for establishments with ten or more workers and left each state to adopt or adapt it; Maharashtra (2017) and Gujarat (2019) passed new Acts on that model, which is why their rules look alike, while many other states still work from Acts of the 1950s and 1960s with later amendments.

Who must register in 2026: the state rules

The first thing to settle is which side of your state's threshold you are on. The table sums up what we could read from official texts and law-firm notes today; states we did not check today are marked so. Count every worker on the rolls, including staff on contract, and check the Act's own definition if you are close to the line.

State	Law	Certificate needed when	Smaller establishments	Source checked
Maharashtra	Maharashtra Shops and Establishments (Regulation of Employment and Conditions of Service) Act, 2017	20 or more workers (was 10), from 1 October 2025	Online intimation only; the workers' protections still apply	Ordinance VIII of 2025
Gujarat	Gujarat Shops and Establishments (Regulation of Employment and Conditions of Service) Act, 2019	20 or more workers, under an ordinance of 16 December 2025 (the 2019 Act said 10)	Online intimation, with a receipt from the Inspector	2019 Bill text; Legal 500 note on the ordinance
Uttar Pradesh	UP Dookan Aur Vanijya Adhishthan Adhiniyam, 1962, amended with effect from 19 November 2025	20 or more employees; apply online within six months of starting	Exempt from the Act	Khaitan & Co, February 2026
Punjab	Punjab Shops and Commercial Establishments Act, 1958, amended 29 August 2025	20 or more workers; apply within six months; deemed registered if not issued in 24 hours	Only Section 13-A applies: intimate the Inspector within six months	Khaitan & Co
Delhi	Delhi Shops and Establishments Act, 1954	Every shop and establishment	No exemption by size	Delhi Labour Department
Madhya Pradesh	MP Shops and Establishments Act, 1958, Second Amendment Act 2025 (from 15 December 2025)	Apply on the portal within 30 days of the Act applying to you	Not stated in the note we read; check the portal	SCC Online, December 2025
Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Telangana, West Bengal and others	Each state's own Act	Not checked today. Read the current rules on the state labour department's portal (Karnataka files on e-Karmika) before you rely on any blog's threshold or fee.		State portal

Three points the ranking pages tend to miss. First, many guides online were written before these amendments and still say "10 or more workers"; in Maharashtra, Gujarat, UP and Punjab that is now out of date. Second, a higher threshold does not mean small businesses have no duty at all: in Maharashtra, Gujarat and Punjab they still tell the department they exist. Third, if you already hold a certificate from an earlier rule, keep it; none of the notes we read asks existing holders to give it back, and the UP note says the Bill did not address existing registrations at all.

Registration or intimation: what you actually get

Under the 2017 and 2019 model-style Acts there are two routes, and they give you different papers.

• Registration (now 20 or more workers in Maharashtra and Gujarat). Section 6 of the Gujarat Act asks the employer to apply within sixty days of starting business, with fees, a self-declaration and self-certified documents; the Inspector enters the establishment in the register and issues a registration certificate that "shall remain in force from the date of issue till the change in ownership or nature of business takes place". A change of owner or of the kind of business needs a fresh certificate.
• Intimation (fewer than 20 workers). Section 7 asks the employer to give the Inspector an online intimation within sixty days of starting, with the names of the employer and manager, the establishment's name, the nature of business and the number of workers. The Inspector issues a receipt of intimation, and the details go into an online register. If the head count later reaches the threshold, the full Act applies and you must register. When the business closes, the Gujarat text gives thirty days to tell the Inspector.

Maharashtra's 2025 ordinance puts the reason plainly: establishments with fewer than 20 workers "will no longer need a registration certificate from the Facilitator but they will only need to provide an intimation of their business. However, the other statutory protections to their workers remain the same". So a ten-person shop in Pune still owes its staff weekly holidays, overtime pay and the Act's other protections; it simply has an intimation receipt instead of a certificate.

The working-hour changes travelled with the thresholds. Maharashtra's ordinance raised the daily limit from nine hours to ten, kept the weekly limit at 48 hours, raised the spread-over from ten and a half hours to twelve and the overtime ceiling from 125 to 144 hours a quarter. Gujarat's ordinance, per Legal 500, also went from nine to ten hours a day and 125 to 144 hours of overtime a quarter, and lets women work between 9 pm and 6 am with their consent and the listed safeguards. Uttar Pradesh moved from eight to nine hours and from 50 to 144 hours of quarterly overtime; Punjab from nine to ten hours and 50 to 144.

Documents and details for shop act registration

Every state has its own form, but the information asked for is much the same. Gather it before you open the portal, because most portals time out and some do not save drafts.

What	Typical proof	Watch out for
Who the employer is	PAN and Aadhaar of the proprietor, partners or directors; for a company or LLP its incorporation certificate and PAN	The name must match the PAN exactly; banks compare the two later
Name and address of the establishment	Rent or leave-and-licence agreement, property tax receipt or electricity bill for the premises	Use the trading name on your signboard; Maharashtra's Act also requires a Marathi name board
Nature of business and category	Self-declaration: shop, commercial establishment, hotel, restaurant, theatre and so on	Changing the category later needs a fresh certificate in Gujarat
Date business started	Self-declaration; GST or Udyam date if you have them	The sixty-day, thirty-day or six-month clock runs from this date
Number of workers, split by men and women	Your attendance or payroll records	This decides registration or intimation; include contract staff
Manager and persons in management positions	Names; sometimes ID	MP's amended Act asks for these by name
Weekly holiday and working hours	Declared on the form in most states	Must fit the Act's limits above
Fee	Online payment	Delhi is free; MP's note quotes ₹2,500; others vary by state and head count

Delhi is the exception again: its Labour Department says registration is online, "free of cost/charges", on a real-time basis and without a physical inspection, through labourcis.nic.in. Most other states ask for self-certified uploads instead of originals.

How to get shop and establishment registration online, step by step

1. Count your workers and read your state's rule. Use the table above, then open your state labour department's site to confirm. If you are below the threshold in Maharashtra, Gujarat or Punjab, you are filing an intimation; in UP you may not need anything under this Act.
2. Find the official portal, not a look-alike. Start from the state labour department's own website (it ends in .gov.in or .nic.in) or the state's single-window portal, such as Nivesh Mitra in Uttar Pradesh. Paid consultants are allowed to help, but no private site is the registering authority.
3. Create an employer login with the mobile number and email you will keep; the certificate and every later notice come to them, and UP now sends certificates by email.
4. Fill in the establishment details exactly as in the documents above: legal name, trading name, full address with PIN, category, date of starting, workers by gender, weekly off and hours.
5. Upload the self-certified documents and sign the self-declaration. Scan clearly; a blurred rent agreement is the usual reason an Inspector sends an application back.
6. Pay the fee, if your state charges one, and save the receipt.
7. Download the certificate or intimation receipt. Delhi and MP issue it automatically on submission; Punjab treats you as registered if the Inspector does not act in 24 hours; elsewhere it comes after the Inspector's check.
8. Display it at the premises (MP's amended Act says so in terms) and keep a PDF with your GST and bank papers.
9. Diary the follow-ups: changes in MP within 7 days, closure in MP within 10 days and in Gujarat within 30, any annual return your state asks for, and the threshold if you are hiring.

Many owners have their chartered accountant file it together with GST and Udyam. That is fine, but the registration is yours: make sure the login is in your name and email, not the consultant's.

Fees, validity, renewal and changes

Renewal is disappearing. Delhi removed the 21-year renewal under Section 5 of its Act in November 2025, making registration a one-time step (reported by GKToday). Gujarat's 2019 Act keeps the certificate in force until the ownership or nature of business changes. Madhya Pradesh's 2025 amendment moved registration, changes and closure onto the portal: a ₹2,500 fee, an automatic certificate, updates within 7 days of any change and closure within 10 days, after which the portal cancels the certificate (per SCC Online). Karnataka has moved renewals to an online, auto-renewal system, but read the fee table on e-Karmika itself; the slabs quoted on consultants' sites disagree with each other.

What still triggers paperwork almost everywhere:

• A new owner or partner, or a new kind of business: a fresh certificate in Gujarat, an amendment elsewhere.
• A move to new premises: each establishment is registered at its address, so a second shop or a branch office needs its own registration or intimation.
• Crossing the threshold: an intimation-only shop that grows to 20 workers in Maharashtra or Gujarat must register.
• Closing down: tell the department, or notices keep coming to an establishment that no longer exists.

Penalties are modest but real. In UP the amended law sets ₹2,000 for a first offence and ₹10,000 for each later one, and an Inspector must first give a 15-day improvement notice for most lapses. Ignoring the Act is cheaper to fix early than after a notice.

Shop act licence vs GST, Udyam, FSSAI and trade licence

People often think one registration covers the others. It does not: each comes from a different authority for a different purpose.

Registration	Issued by	Purpose	Who needs it
Shop and establishment	State labour department	Working conditions of staff	Shops and offices, by the state's worker threshold
Trade licence	Municipal corporation or council	Use of premises for a trade; health and safety in the city	Set by city bylaws, often by trade
GST registration	GST department (GSTN portal)	Indirect tax	Above the turnover limit, or for inter-state and online sales
Udyam	Ministry of MSME	MSME status and benefits	Optional; useful for credit and tenders
FSSAI licence or registration	Food Safety and Standards Authority	Food safety	Any food business
OSH Code registration	Shram Suvidha portal (central rules)	Safety, health and working conditions under the Code in force since 21 November 2025	Establishments the Code applies to; ask your adviser

The OSH Code row deserves care. LiveLaw's July 2026 analysis explains that the Code came into force on 21 November 2025, that the central rules were published on 9 May 2026, and that establishments already registered under an earlier central labour law must update their details in Form I on Shram Suvidha within six months of the rules, which it works out as 9 November 2026. It also notes that establishments under a state's jurisdiction must check that state's own rules. The article does not say the Code replaces the state shop acts, so treat the two as separate questions.

For the other look-ups, our Udyam registration guide covers MSME status, the FSSAI license check covers food businesses, and the company search guide shows how to check a GSTIN or a company before you deal with it. If you are setting up a shop that will also sell medicines, the drug license guide adds that layer.

Why the certificate matters for a bank account, landlords and buyers

For a sole proprietor the shop act certificate is often the first document that names the business rather than the person. RBI's KYC rules ask a bank opening an account for a proprietary concern for two documents in the firm's name as proof of its activity, and let the bank accept one only if it is satisfied two cannot be produced and it verifies the business at its address (RBI circular of 1 April 2015). Banks commonly take the shop and establishment certificate as one of the two, with a GST certificate, Udyam or a tax registration as the other. If you are below your state's threshold, ask the bank whether the intimation receipt will do; practice varies.

Beyond the bank, the certificate turns up when a landlord signs a commercial lease, when a payment gateway or marketplace onboards you as a seller, when a distributor opens a dealer account, and in tender forms that ask for statutory registrations. It is also how a buyer can tell a real shop from a phone number: a business with a registration, a GSTIN and a fixed address is easier to trust with credit.

How many shops and offices the rules touch: Starleads' figures

Nobody publishes a national count of registered establishments, and Starleads does not hold registration numbers. What Starleads does hold is contacts for the businesses these Acts cover. The figures below were checked on 9 November 2026; like all Starleads figures in this guide they are counts of contacts in Starleads' data, compiled from business directories, not an official census or a labour department register.

• Retail & Shops (All Industries): 9,30,564 shops across 35 states and 1,238 cities, 93% with a mobile number and 32% with an email. The most are in Maharashtra (2,22,853), Uttar Pradesh (1,27,809) and Delhi (97,436), the three states whose rules differ most: Maharashtra's small shops file an intimation, UP's are exempt, and Delhi's must all register.
• Grocery & Supermarkets: 2,12,501, with Uttar Pradesh (92,134) far ahead of Maharashtra (29,689) and Bihar (11,230). Most kirana stores employ only family members or a few helpers, which is exactly the size UP's amendment took out of the Act.
• Restaurants, Cafes & Bars: 1,44,421, 92% with a mobile and 43% with an email. Our Insights figures put Mumbai first with 39,306, then Bengaluru (13,771), Pune (9,757), Chennai (9,151) and Hyderabad (8,929). Restaurants are establishments under all the Acts in the table above, and a busy kitchen with service staff crosses 20 workers sooner than a shop does.
• Clothing & Fashion Stores: 94,219, 94% with a mobile number.
• Chartered Accountants & Tax Consultants: 47,994 in 27 states, 97% with a mobile and 83% with an email; Maharashtra 19,286, Delhi 5,879, Karnataka 4,274. They file most of these registrations for clients, and their own offices are establishments too.
• State directories: Maharashtra has 11,30,630 businesses of all kinds in 1,202 cities and towns (Mumbai 5,77,978, Pune 2,48,520, Nagpur 42,850), and Delhi 9,85,771.

Live figures: our Retail & Shops (All Industries) list has 9,30,564 contacts in 1,238 cities, 93% with a mobile number and 32% with an email. Every list page has 60 sample rows to download free before you pay.

Related lists

• Retail & Shops (All Industries) 9,30,564 contacts · 32% email · 93% mobile ₹1,999
• Grocery & Supermarkets 2,12,501 contacts · 5% email · 99% mobile ₹1,999
• Restaurants, Cafes & Bars 1,44,421 contacts · 43% email · 92% mobile ₹1,999
• Clothing & Fashion Stores 94,219 contacts · 28% email · 94% mobile ₹1,999
• Chartered Accountants & Tax Consultants 47,994 contacts · 83% email · 97% mobile ₹1,999

Where Starleads falls short: these lists give a shop's name, the owner where listed, phone, email and address. They do not say whether a shop holds a shop act certificate, how many people it employs or its GSTIN, so they help you find and reach shops, not check their compliance. City, state and specialisation lists cost ₹499 and all-India files of 10,000 or more contacts ₹1,999, plus 18% GST. Our retailers database guide covers the shop market by trade.

Selling to shops and new businesses within the rules

A new registration is a buying moment. A shop that has just registered needs billing software, a POS terminal, signboards, CCTV, insurance, a current account, staff uniforms and an accountant. Firms that sell those things often ask how to reach new shops. Two honest points first: state labour departments do not publish a list of new registrants with phone numbers, and anyone selling "today's shop act registrations" deserves a hard question about where the data came from. A list of shops by trade and city reaches the same owners lawfully.

When you call or message shop owners, India's telecom rules apply as they do to any business:

• Check DND. Run mobile numbers against TRAI's National Customer Preference Register before a promotional call or SMS; most shop owners use personal mobiles for the business. Our DND check guide shows how.
• Use DLT for SMS. Bulk SMS must go through a DLT-registered sender, with a registered header and approved templates.
• Get consent for anything repeated. Say who you are at the start of a call, keep to business hours, record consent before follow-up messages, and stop when someone asks you to.
• Talk business, not personal. Reach the shop as a business. Starleads sells lists of businesses and professionals only, not of private individuals.

Timing helps. Owners in Maharashtra, Gujarat, UP and Punjab have just been told they may have less paperwork, and many will not know whether their existing certificate still matters or whether they need an intimation. A short, accurate explainer from a CA firm, a billing software company or a bank, sent to shops in one city, is useful to them and starts a conversation. Our guide to starting a trading business covers the other set-up steps those owners face.

Questions people ask

Is shop and establishment registration mandatory?

It depends on your state and your head count. In Delhi every shop and establishment must register. In Maharashtra, Gujarat and Punjab registration is now for 20 or more workers and smaller ones file an intimation; in Uttar Pradesh establishments with fewer than 20 employees are exempt from the Act. Check your own state's labour department before you decide you need nothing.

Is shop act licence and gumasta licence the same?

Yes. Gumasta is the older local name, still used in Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra, for the registration certificate under the state's Shops and Establishments Act. The rules that apply are the state Act's, whatever the certificate is called.

Can I get a shop act licence for a home-based or online business?

Possibly, if your state's Act covers it and you employ people. A commercial establishment can be an office at home; what matters is whether you carry on business there with workers. If you have no employees and are below the threshold, you may only owe an intimation, or nothing in UP. Banks sometimes ask for the certificate anyway, so ask the bank what it accepts.

What is the validity of shop and establishment registration?

Increasingly, it does not expire. Delhi made registration one-time in November 2025, Gujarat's certificate lasts until ownership or the nature of business changes, and Madhya Pradesh moved changes and closures online. Older Acts in other states may still have renewal or annual filings, so check yours.

Is the shop act certificate the same as a trade licence?

No. The shop act certificate comes from the state labour department and is about your staff. A trade licence comes from the municipal corporation and is about using the premises for a trade. Many shops need both.

How long does shop and establishment registration take?

In Delhi it is issued in real time on submission, and MP's portal issues it automatically after payment. Punjab treats you as registered if the Inspector does not act within 24 hours. Elsewhere, allow for the Inspector's check of your documents.

Does the OSH Code replace the shop act?

Not on what we read. The OSH Code has its own registration on the Shram Suvidha portal, and LiveLaw's analysis does not say it replaces the state shop acts. Treat them as separate and ask your adviser whether your establishment needs both.