Vidhatri Legal
Client forwardFuture looking
Choose counsel who has sat on your side of the table.
Independent labour, employment, regulatory and corporate counsel. Mumbai & Delhi. A practice built from three sides of the table: a top-tier law firm, FMCG in-house and manufacturing in-house.
How can we help?
Choose an area
Advice that holds up in the boardroom and on the shop floor.
For GCs, CHROs and compliance heads managing the Labour Codes transition, multi-state workforces and the day-to-day questions that come with them.
- StructureClassification, contract labour, workforce models
- ComplyWage impact, audits, payroll, policies
- ProtectPoSH, investigations, industrial relations
- ChangeTransactions, restructuring, exits
- ResolveNotices, Labour Courts, mediation
Clear advice on what your contract and the law provide.
For professionals and senior employees who want an independent view before they sign, negotiate or raise a concern.
Employee matters are accepted subject to conflict checks against existing employer clients.
- Appointment letters, bonds and restrictive covenants
- Exit, severance and full-and-final settlement
- Wages, gratuity and leave entitlements
- Workplace complaints and grievance routes
From policy to inquiry, built on years of Internal Committee work.
Practical PoSH support from a certified trainer who has sat on Internal Committees at Marico and Hindalco and drafted inquiry reports.
- PoSH policy drafting and annual reporting
- External member on Internal Committees
- Inquiry support and report drafting
- Trainings for employees, managers and IC members
What regulators have done
- 2025 · MumbaiDistrict WCD office directs establishments with 10 or more employees to register their IC on the SHe-Box portal.
- Dec 2025 · GurugramDistrict administration issues a detailed compliance checklist to be filed with the annual report.
- Feb 2026 · MaharashtraState Women's Commission directs districts to audit Internal Committees and report within 30 days.
- May 2026 · MaharashtraState circular empowers officials to inspect workplaces against a government checklist.
The first 48 hours after a complaint
- 01Acknowledge in writing and confirm the IC is validly constituted.
- 02Assess interim relief, with the complainant's wellbeing first.
- 03Preserve evidence: messages, access logs, CCTV and witnesses.
- 04Lock confidentiality under Section 16 and agree who needs to know.
Steady counsel through negotiation, standing orders and dispute.
For plants and establishments working with unions and works committees as the Industrial Relations Code resets thresholds and procedures.
- Standing orders and their certification
- Collective bargaining, settlements and recognition
- Strikes, lock-outs and conciliation
- Lay-off, retrenchment and closure
Governance for AI in hiring, monitoring and work design.
As AI tools enter recruitment, performance and surveillance, employers may need policies that anticipate both employment law and data protection exposure.
- AI in recruitment and performance review
- Employee monitoring and data under the DPDP Act, 2023
- Workplace policies on generative AI use
- Restructuring linked to automation
- Formerly Shardul Amarchand Mangaldas
- Formerly in-house, Marico
- Formerly in-house, Hindalco, Aditya Birla Group
- Gold Medal and Rank 1, Government Law College, Mumbai
- LLM, O.P. Jindal Global Law School
- Internationally accredited mediator
- Certified PoSH trainer
- Quoted in The Indian Express
- Worked with NITI Aayog on RPwD Act reforms
- Keynote, People Matters Tech HR Summit 2026
- Member, Employers' Federation of India, CASMB and BNI
Spotlight
Beyond employment: regulatory and corporate counsel.
Workforce questions rarely stay in HR. They surface in licences, inspections, contracts and transactions. Vidhatri Legal advises on the regulatory and corporate layer around your people.
Regulatory & compliance
A defensible position on file across central and state regimes, from registrations to inspections.
- Labour Codes registrations and returns
- Shops & establishments across states
- Contract labour licences
- Inspections and show-cause notices
- Employee data under the DPDP Act
- Compliance audits and calendars
Corporate & commercial
Contracts and transactions where people, vendors and liability meet, drafted with the employment risk in view.
- Master service agreements
- Outsourcing and staffing contracts
- Employment due diligence in M&A
- Transfer of employees on acquisition
- Senior hire and exit arrangements
- Vendor and principal employer liability
Why Vidhatri
A practice built from three sides of the table.
The firm
Shardul Amarchand Mangaldas
Opinion work, transactions and diligence at the standard of a full-service firm. Advice that holds up when a board, an auditor or a regulator reads it.
FMCG
Marico
Multi-state field forces, off-roll structures and the pace of a consumer business. Policies that sales teams can actually follow.
Manufacturing
Hindalco, Aditya Birla Group
Plants, contract labour, standing orders and unions. An understanding of what a compliance change means across many units at once.
For an employer, this may mean advice that anticipates how it will be implemented, by whom, and at what cost to the business.
Industry focus
Counsel that knows your world.
Labour law rarely changes in isolation. It reaches payroll, plant operations, procurement and culture. We start from how your sector actually runs.
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Multi-unit plants, a mixed workforce of permanent, fixed-term and contract workers, and committees that the Industrial Relations Code reshapes.
- Standing orders and certification
- Contract labour and principal employer liability
- Fixed-term employment design
- Retrenchment, closure and transfer of undertakings
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Sales and distribution teams across many states, third-party staffing, and pay structures under fresh scrutiny from the Code on Wages.
- Field-force classification
- Off-roll and staffing structures
- CTC restructuring under the wage definition
- Shops & establishments compliance across states
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Employment diligence in banking and M&A, where workforce liabilities can quietly move the price of a deal.
- Employment due diligence
- Transfer of employees on acquisition
- Senior hire and exit documentation
- Policy and handbook reviews
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Companies building their first HR architecture, where early choices on contracts and structure tend to compound.
- Employment contracts and ESOP-linked terms
- Consultant versus employee structuring
- PoSH set-up and Internal Committee
- Labour compliance calendar
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Fast-growing teams across many States, Global Capability Centres being set up for foreign groups, and talent that moves between employers.
- GCC and new-entity workforce set-up
- Multi-State compliance and S&E registrations
- Non-compete and non-solicitation positions
- Hybrid and remote working policies
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India employment counsel alongside firms abroad, which keep the client relationship while we handle the Indian limb.
- India entry and workforce set-up for foreign groups
- The Indian limb of global restructurings and investigations
- Secondments and intra-group transfers
- Relationships across Europe, the Gulf, Asia-Pacific, Africa and North America
Representative experience
Work across the life of a workforce.
Worker classification of on-roll roles, mapped against the IR Code by actual duties.
Wage impact assessments for multinational corporations and start-ups under the revised wage definition.
Multi-State compliance gap analysis for an ITES company, with minimum wage verification across some 22 States.
Standing orders, union settlements and disciplinary proceedings across multiple manufacturing plants.
The employment workstream on buy-side and sell-side transactions, from diligence to post-closing remediation.
Non-compete and non-solicitation action for a software company against a former employee.
Representative experience includes work undertaken by lead counsel in prior roles. Matters are described without identifying clients, and no outcome is promised for any future matter.
Labour Codes · Code on Wages, 2019 · s. 2(y)
Does your pay structure pass the 50% test?
Under the Code on Wages, allowances excluded from "wages" cannot exceed half of total remuneration. Anything above that line is added back, and the higher wage base then flows into PF, gratuity and other statutory costs.
Enter a monthly pay structure for a first indication of where it lands.
Labour Codes · The headcount ladder
What applies at your headcount?
Every major trigger under the four Codes on one ladder. Enter the number of people at an establishment to see which obligations may begin to apply.
At 120, 17 of 19 obligations on this ladder may apply.
- Code on Wages
- PoSH policy and awareness
- Retrenchment conditions
- Equal opportunity policy
- PoSH Internal Committee
- ESI
- Gratuity
- Maternity benefit
- OSH Code registration
- EPF
- Statutory bonus
- Grievance Redressal Committee
- Factory (with power)
- Crèche
- Contract labour licensing
- Works Committee
- Canteen
- Standing orders
- Prior permission for lay-off, retrenchment and closure
Indicative only. Some triggers count "employees" and others count "workers" or contract labour. ESI, EPF and bonus are also subject to wage ceilings, and factories without power are covered at 40+ workers. From the Vidhatri Legal Employer's Guide, 2026 Edition. Request an applicability review.
Free · 2026 editionAn employer's guide
Employing people under the Labour Codes.
What changed, what it costs and what to do next: a practical 13-page guide for general counsel, CHROs and compliance leaders. Current as at September 2026.
- Key takeaways
- What actually changed
- The employment lifecycle
- Structure
- Pay: the 50% rule
- Protect
- Exit
- The headcount ladder
- The 2026 watchlist
- A 90-day plan
Your copy is ready. Thank you for your interest.
Open the guide (PDF) ↗In the press
The Indian Express
Workplace · India vs France on working hours
Khubi Agrawal was quoted on how India's working-hour, overtime and timekeeping rules compare with France, after French authorities fined Infosys over the tracking of employee work hours.
How engagements work
Three ways to work together.
Retainer
For in-house teams who need standing labour and regulatory counsel.
- Defined monthly scope
- Priority turnaround on queries
- Quarterly compliance check-ins
Project
For a transition, audit, restructuring or transaction.
- Codes readiness and roll-out
- Workforce structure redesign
- Employment due diligence
Training
For managers, HR teams and Internal Committees.
- PoSH awareness and IC training
- Labour Codes masterclasses
- Webinars for HR communities
Our team
Khubi Agrawal
Founder & Lead Counsel
Khubi founded Vidhatri Legal in 2026 after advising employers from the firm side at Shardul Amarchand Mangaldas and from inside two of India's best-known businesses. She has served on PoSH Internal Committees, drafted inquiry reports and led workplace initiatives across manufacturing units.
A plant-level PoSH session at Hindalco surfaced gaps in sanitary napkin availability. Khubi initiated a pan-Hindalco audit, and the resulting practice, in place from 2022, anticipated Rule 47(6) of the OSH Code Central Rules, which made the same provision mandatory in 2026.
- Career
- 2021 Hindalco Industries, Aditya Birla Group · 2023 Marico Limited (Beardo, Just Herbs, Saffola) · 2025 Shardul Amarchand Mangaldas, Employment, Labour & Benefits · 2026 Vidhatri Legal
- Education
- BLS LLB, Government Law College, Mumbai: Rank 1, Gold Medal · LLM, Corporate Laws, O.P. Jindal Global Law School · PG Diplomas in Environmental Law (NLU Delhi and WWF) and Human Rights
- Accreditation
- Internationally accredited mediator, ADR ODR International · Certified Trainer, PoSH Act, Labour Laws Institute
- Speaking
- Keynote, People Matters Tech HR Summit 2026, on the Labour Codes · Four-part Labour Codes masterclass for 300+ professionals with Saral by Relyon Softech · FICCI-AIOE Global IR Summit paper on platform workers
- Policy
- Worked with NITI Aayog on proposed reforms to the Rights of Persons with Disabilities Act
- Media
- Quoted in The Indian Express on working-hour laws in India and France
- Memberships
- Employers' Federation of India · CASMB · BNI
News & insights
Analysis on the Labour Codes, PoSH and the changing workplace.
Enquire
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