By Reetika S. Gupta, Partner at Aristo Legal Under the Apprentices Act, 1961, managing an underperforming apprentice is a fundamentally different legal challenge than managing a regular employee. Despite the 2025 amendments aimed at “Revitalising the Apprenticeship Ecosystem,” the core protection for employers remains Section 18: apprentices are trainees, not workers, and labour laws—including the Industrial Disputes Act (ID Act)—do not apply to them. However, the 2026 Rastogi Judgement has…
