The Factories Act, 1948 and CCTV: What Every Owner Should Know

⚠️ Update (21 November 2025): the Factories Act, 1948 has been repealed. The four Labour Codes came into force on 21 November 2025, and the Occupational Safety, Health and Working Conditions (OSH) Code, 2020 now replaces the Factories Act, 1948 along with 12 other central labour laws (OSH Code 2020, India Code; PIB / Ministry of Labour & Employment). The Factories Act is no longer the operative parent statute for Indian factories. This page keeps the historical Factories Act context — clearly marked "pre-21.11.2025 / historical" — and maps each old duty to its OSH Code equivalent. For the current-law treatment, read our dedicated explainer: The OSH Code 2020 and factory CCTV — what replaced the Factories Act.

Neither the old Factories Act, 1948 nor the OSH Code, 2020 imposes a generic factory-wide CCTV mandate. Both frame the employer's core obligation as an outcome — a safe, healthy workplace — and leave the means to you. What is now mandated, narrowly, is CCTV as part of the safeguards package for women on night shifts: under the OSH Central Rules, 2026 (notified 8 May 2026) at central level, and under state Factories Rules that predate the repeal (e.g. Maharashtra's Rule 102-B) during the transition. And the moment a lens finds a worker's face, the DPDP Act, 2023 wakes up.

Walk into a mid-size fabrication or die-casting unit and you'll often find the same backwards priority: a camera trained on the entry gate, and none on the power press where a hand actually gets caught. The gate protects assets. Nobody framed the hazard. That inversion — cameras as theatre, not safety — is what this piece is about, because the law cares about the press, not the gate.

If a vendor tells you "the Factories Act requires cameras," they are selling, not citing — and doubly so now, because the Factories Act is no longer live law. Here is what the old Act put on your shoulders, what carried over into the OSH Code, 2020, and what changed.

Key facts

• The Factories Act, 1948 was repealed on 21 November 2025 when the four Labour Codes came into force; the OSH Code, 2020 replaced it and 12 other central labour laws (OSH Code 2020, India Code). Treat any advice citing the Factories Act in the present tense as stale.
• Neither statute contains a generic CCTV mandate. The old Factories Act named no camera; the OSH Code does not either. Both make the employer's core duty outcome-based.
• The employer's core duty carried over — the section number changed. Under the old Act it was the occupier's general duty to ensure health, safety and welfare "so far as is reasonably practicable" (Factories Act s.7A, historical). Under the OSH Code the equivalent is Section 6: the employer must ensure the workplace is "free from hazards which cause or are likely to cause injury or occupational disease" and comply with the safety and health standards under Section 18 (OSH Code 2020, India Code).
• Safety Officer / Safety Committee — threshold lowered. Old Act: a Safety Officer where 1,000+ workers were ordinarily employed or in a notified hazardous process (Factories Act s.40B, historical). OSH Code: Section 22 empowers the appropriate Government to require Safety Officers and a Safety Committee, with the commonly cited factory thresholds at 500 workers (250 in a hazardous process) (OSH Code 2020, India Code). Confirm your state's OSH rules for the exact figure.
• The only real CCTV requirement sits in the women's night-shift package. At central level the OSH Central Rules, 2026 (notified 8 May 2026) require a workplace "equipped with CCTV surveillance" (plus written consent, safe transport, lit pathways, etc.) where women work outside 6 a.m.–7 p.m. During the transition, state Factories Rules made before the repeal continue — e.g. Maharashtra's Factories (Second Amendment) Rules, 2025 (notified 3 Oct 2025), Rule 102-B: continuous CCTV with 45-day retention for women's night shifts. Neither is a factory-wide camera mandate.
• Worker CCTV footage is personal data under the DPDP Act, 2023, administered by MeitY.
• From 1 April 2026, only STQC/BIS-certified cameras are legal to sell, after MeitY withdrew all essential-requirements exemptions (16 Jan 2026).

What the law requires — old Act (historical) and the OSH Code equivalent

The duties below are described first as they stood under the Factories Act, 1948 — historical, pre-21.11.2025 — and then mapped to the OSH Code, 2020 provision that now carries them. The substance barely moved; the section numbers and the statute name did.

The old Act pinned primary responsibility on the occupier — the person with ultimate control of the factory (Factories Act s.2(n)). Its linchpin was Section 7A: the occupier had to ensure, "so far as is reasonably practicable," the health, safety and welfare of every worker. The Act told you the result to reach; it almost never dictated the tool. The OSH Code keeps exactly that logic in Section 6 — the employer must keep the workplace "free from hazards which cause or are likely to cause injury or occupational disease" and meet the standards notified under Section 18 (OSH Code 2020, India Code).

Around that spine sit the concrete duties:

• Safe machinery and systems of work — old Act: fencing of machinery (Factories Act s.21), safe access, protection from dangerous processes. Now: OSH Code Chapter IV safety provisions plus the safety and health standards under Section 18.
• Health and welfare — cleanliness, ventilation, lighting, drinking water, worker facilities. Carried into the OSH Code's welfare chapter (Chapter V) and the Central/State Rules.
• Records and registers — old Act: maintain the prescribed registers and produce them to the Inspector of Factories on demand. Now: the OSH Code lets you keep a consolidated worker register electronically and file returns to the inspector-cum-facilitator electronically (OSH Code Chapter VIII).
• Reportable incidents — old Act: accidents and dangerous occurrences notified to the authorities, with the notice duty on the manager (Factories Act ss.88 and 88A) and the occupier also liable. The OSH Code keeps a duty to report accidents and dangerous occurrences to the inspector-cum-facilitator.
• A Safety Officer / Safety Committee — old Act: a Safety Officer where 1,000+ workers were ordinarily employed or in a notified hazardous process (Factories Act s.40B). Now: OSH Code Section 22, with the appropriate Government able to require a Safety Committee and Safety Officers — the commonly cited factory thresholds being 500 workers (250 in a hazardous process). The trigger and qualifications live in your state's OSH rules.

Nowhere on that list — old or new — is a camera. The law asks for outcomes, not lenses.

Where the CCTV requirement actually lives now

Here is the shift most explainers miss. Neither parent statute — old Act or OSH Code — carries a factory-wide camera mandate. The recording requirement lives in the delegated legislation: the OSH Central Rules, 2026 at central level, and the state rules, which is where it is removing the choice, case by case.

At central level, the OSH Central Rules, 2026 (notified 8 May 2026) fold CCTV into the safeguards package for women working outside 6 a.m.–7 p.m.: a workplace "equipped with CCTV surveillance," written consent, safe transport, well-lit entry/exit and pathways, nearby toilets and drinking water, and displayed helpline numbers. That package flows from OSH Code Section 43, which permits women to work night shifts everywhere "with their consent," subject to prescribed conditions.

Maharashtra moved first, before the repeal. Its Factories (Second Amendment) Rules, 2025 — notified 3 October 2025 under the (then-live) Factories Act — add Rule 102-B: for women on night shifts, continuous CCTV coverage with a 45-day retention floor, well-lit passages, a minimum of two women on duty per shift, and a grievance mechanism (a meeting roughly every eight weeks). Repeal of the central Act does not instantly vaporise this machinery: state Factories Rules and licences made under the legacy law continue through the transition until each state notifies its own OSH rules, so Rule 102-B remains a live example of the direction of travel. The CCTV requirement rides inside the women's-night-shift provision — it is not a generic factory-wide mandate.

So "cameras are optional" was only ever a statement about the parent statute, and it has never been the whole story. Before you treat CCTV as discretionary, read your state's rules — legacy Factories Rules during the transition, and your state OSH rules once notified — plus the OSH Central Rules for central-sphere establishments. Where a rule mandates recording, your question stops being whether to film and becomes how to film without walking into the second law below. For the full current-law walkthrough, see The OSH Code 2020 and factory CCTV and states with women's night-shift CCTV rules.

Do CCTV cameras help with OSH Code (and old Factories Act) compliance?

Yes — as a detection and evidence layer, never as the safeguard itself. Because the safety duty is about proving and sustaining safe conditions, camera evidence makes compliance easier to demonstrate — and the OSH Code's move to electronic registers and web-based inspection makes producible video evidence worth more, not less. The duty column below names the OSH Code, 2020 provision, with the old Factories Act section in brackets for continuity:

Cameras do the two things people do worst: watch everywhere at once, and remember exactly what happened. For a plant scaling toward the 500-worker line — where OSH Code Section 22 brings a Safety Committee and Safety Officer into play (down from the old Act's 1,000) — that visibility is real. See PPE and helmet detection for Indian factories for one concrete application.

Can CCTV replace physical machine guards?

No. This is the part most vendors skip.

A guard makes a machine safe. A camera just watches it hurt someone.

The law's physical requirements — fencing, safe access, ventilation, protective equipment, unchanged in substance from the old Factories Act into the OSH Code's safety standards under Section 18 — are not satisfied by watching them on a screen. A recording of an unguarded press proves the hazard existed. It does not discharge the duty to fence it. An inspector-cum-facilitator who finds an unfenced machine will not be moved that it was on CCTV; if anything, the footage documents that you saw the risk and left it.

Treat cameras as a layer on top of physical compliance, never a substitute for it. The engineering controls come first, every time. Used well, cameras help you find gaps faster and prove you acted. That is their job, and the whole of it.

How does the DPDP Act, 2023 affect worker CCTV?

The instant your cameras record identifiable workers, that footage becomes personal data under the Digital Personal Data Protection Act, 2023 — the statute that operationalises the fundamental right to privacy recognised in K.S. Puttaswamy v. Union of India (2017). Handling worker video therefore hands you a second set of duties.

A common misconception: that CCTV runs on worker consent. It usually does not. DPDP provides a "legitimate use" ground for employment purposes, so safety monitoring can rest on that ground rather than on consent — but notice, purpose limitation and data minimisation still bind. The DPDP Act boils down to four things you actually do on the floor:

The collision no one else names

Here is the trap that opens once a state mandates recording. Maharashtra now compels continuous filming of women's night-shift areas for 45 days — which maximises the volume of worker personal data you hold in those zones. At the exact same moment, DPDP demands data minimisation. Two arms of Indian law now push in opposite directions: one says record everything, the other says record as little as possible.

You cannot satisfy both by shooting less footage — the mandate forbids that. The only lever left is placement and purpose-tagging: point every lens at a machine, a lane, a danger zone or an unlit passage, tag it to a stated safety purpose, and keep it off private areas. A camera on a forklift lane is defensibly a safety purpose under both laws. A camera on a canteen table serves neither — it is pure DPDP exposure. Placement is where a CCTV mandate and DPDP stop fighting. For the full picture, read DPDP and worker CCTV for Indian factories.

How long should you keep footage?

Concretely. State police and establishment advisories cluster at 30–60 days, and Maharashtra's 2025 rules now set a 45-day statutory floor for CCTV covering women's night shifts. Treat roughly 45–60 days as the practical minimum, then auto-overwrite. The overwrite is not just housekeeping — it is how you satisfy DPDP's minimisation and storage-limitation principles at the same time you meet the retention rule.

Compliant placement and compliant hardware are two gates

Even once you decide — or are required — to install, the camera itself has to be legal. From 1 April 2026, only STQC/BIS-certified surveillance cameras may be sold in India, after MeitY withdrew all essential-requirements exemptions on 16 January 2026. So "compliant placement" and "compliant hardware" are now separate gates: you can place a camera perfectly and still fail on an uncertified device. See BIS/STQC 2026 factory camera compliance.

A practical checklist

Your state OSH inspectorate (the inspector-cum-facilitator) and your own counsel have the final word on your plant. Baseline:

1. Fix the physical safeguards first. Guards, fencing, access, ventilation, PPE. Cameras come after.
2. Check the rules that actually bind you — your state's OSH rules once notified, the legacy state Factories Rules still running during the transition, and the OSH Central Rules, 2026 — for any CCTV or night-shift mandate before assuming cameras are optional.
3. Write down each camera's purpose before mounting it, tied to a specific duty.
4. Keep lenses on machines, lanes and unlit passages, off private areas — where the safety case and DPDP compliance meet.
5. Post bilingual signage, set a 45–60 day retention window, and lock the NVR (role-based access, access log).
6. Buy only STQC/BIS-certified hardware ahead of the 1 April 2026 cut-off.
7. Confirm with your inspector-cum-facilitator before treating any camera setup as part of your safety case.

How Mama fits

Most of the risk on both sides — OSH Code safety duty and DPDP — is decided at the placement stage, before a single bracket is drilled. You record a short phone walkthrough of the floor. Mama reads the space: machines, walkways, danger zones, unlit night-shift passages, rest areas. It returns a floor plan and a camera layout that keeps lenses on hazards and off private areas. You get placement that serves the safety case and stays minimised by default — the two things a state CCTV mandate and DPDP both demand, resolved in one pass. See Mama.

FAQ

Is the Factories Act, 1948 still in force? No. It was repealed on 21 November 2025, when the four Labour Codes came into force and the OSH Code, 2020 replaced the Factories Act along with 12 other central labour laws (OSH Code 2020, India Code). Advice citing the Factories Act in the present tense is stale. See The OSH Code 2020 and factory CCTV.

Does the law require CCTV in factories? No generic factory-wide mandate — not under the old Factories Act, and not under the OSH Code, 2020, which frames the employer's duty as keeping the workplace hazard-free (Section 6). The one real requirement is narrow: CCTV inside the women's night-shift safeguards package — under the OSH Central Rules, 2026 (notified 8 May 2026) at central level, and under legacy state rules such as Maharashtra's Rule 102-B (continuous CCTV, 45-day retention) during the transition. Check the rules that bind your plant.

Can CCTV replace physical machine guards? No. Watching a hazard is not removing it. The engineering controls — fencing, guarding, safe access — carried from the old Factories Act into the OSH Code's safety standards (Section 18) and must be in place regardless. Cameras add a detection and evidence layer on top; they do not discharge the physical safeguard duties.

When do I need a Safety Officer? Under the old Factories Act it was 1,000+ workers ordinarily employed (s.40B, historical). Under the OSH Code Section 22, the appropriate Government requires a Safety Committee and Safety Officer, with the commonly cited factory thresholds at 500 workers (250 in a hazardous process). Confirm the exact trigger and qualifications with your state's OSH rules and inspector-cum-facilitator.

Is worker CCTV footage legal to keep? Yes, if handled properly. It is personal data under the DPDP Act, 2023, so you need signage/notice, a fixed purpose, minimisation, retention limits and access controls. Employee safety monitoring can rest on the DPDP "legitimate use" ground rather than consent, but those duties still apply. Avoid cameras in washrooms, changing rooms and rest areas. This is general guidance, not legal advice — laws change, so verify with your compliance advisor, your state OSH inspectorate and counsel before you act on it.