All Types of Leaves in Corporate India – Complete Guide (2026)

Ask ten different HR managers in India how many leave types they manage, and you’ll get ten different answers. Some will say five. Others will say fifteen. Both are probably right because the correct answer depends on which state you’re in, which industry you operate in, and whether you’re reading the Factories Act, the Shops and Establishments Act of your particular state, or your own company’s leave policy document.

India’s leave framework is genuinely complex. There is no single national leave code. Maternity leave and three national public holidays are the only near-universal mandates. Everything else how many casual leaves, whether sick leave is separate from casual, the number of earned leaves, whether bereavement leave exists at all varies by state, by industry, and by employer policy.

That’s not an excuse for confusion, it’s a reason to understand the framework properly. This guide covers every type of leave you’re likely to encounter in an Indian corporate setting, what the law actually says about each, what most companies offer in practice, and crucially which ones you absolutely must have in your policy and which are good-to-have signals of a modern employer. We’ve also included a 2026 update section because the new Labour Codes changed some important eligibility rules.

The Legal Framework: Why There’s No Single Answer

Before listing leaves, it helps to understand why the rules are different for different companies. Three sets of laws are most relevant:

• Factories Act 1948 applies to manufacturing units and factories. Mandates earned leave at 1 day per 20 days worked, with eligibility after 240 days of work (now 180 days under the Labour Codes). State governments implement and enforce this, so specific provisions vary by state.
• Shops and Establishments Act each state has its own version, governing IT companies, corporate offices, retail establishments, banks, and most non-manufacturing businesses. This is the act most private sector companies in India fall under. It defines casual, sick, and earned leave entitlements but the numbers differ meaningfully between states.
• Maternity Benefit Act 1961 (amended 2017) applies to all establishments with 10 or more employees. Mandates 26 weeks of paid maternity leave for eligible women employees for their first two children. This is a central act and applies uniformly.
• Four Labour Codes (2025–2026) the government has been consolidating 29 labour laws into four codes. Most relevant changes: annual leave eligibility reduced from 240 days to 180 days of work, and contract/fixed-term employees now entitled to the same leave benefits as permanent employees. Full state-level implementation is still in progress check your state’s notification status.

All Types of Leaves in India Complete Reference

Here’s a reference covering every type of leave you’re likely to encounter in Indian corporate settings statutory, policy-based, and emerging.

Note: Statutory entitlements vary by state and industry. ‘Mandatory’ indicates broad applicability under central or state law always verify against your specific state’s Shops and Establishments Act or the Factories Act as applicable. Sources: Factories Act 1948, Maternity Benefit Act 1961, state-specific S&E Acts, Labour Codes 2025-2026.

Each Leave Type What It Means in Practice

1. Earned Leave (EL) / Privilege Leave (PL) / Annual Leave (AL)

What it is: The leave employees accumulate over time by working. It’s called Earned Leave in most manufacturing contexts (Factories Act), Privilege Leave or Casual Leave in some commercial establishments, and Annual Leave in others. Same concept, different names.

How it works: Under the Factories Act, workers earn 1 day of leave for every 20 days worked in the previous calendar year. Under state Shops Acts, most commercial employees receive 12–21 days per year depending on the state. Employees must complete 180 days of work in a year to become eligible (previously 240 days changed under the Labour Codes in 2026).

Carry forward and encashment: Earned leave can be carried forward typically capped at 30 days maximum. Unused balance can generally be encashed when an employee resigns, retires, or exits. The encashment is paid at basic salary per day, and is taxable (with a capped exemption for private sector employees under the Income Tax Act).

In practice: Most Indian corporates offer 15–21 days of EL per year, accruing monthly or quarterly.

2. Casual Leave (CL)

What it is: Short-notice leave for personal matters an unexpected family situation, a local errand, a vehicle breakdown. Doesn’t require advance planning or a formal reason. Unlike earned leave, it’s typically for a day or two at a time rather than extended periods.

How it works: Most states mandate 6–12 days of CL per year. In some states like Delhi, Casual Leave and Sick Leave are combined into a single pool. CL generally cannot be carried forward what you don’t use by year-end is gone.

In practice: 8–10 days is the most common corporate offering. Employees value the flexibility; HR teams appreciate that it’s typically self-certified (no documentation required for 1–2 days).

3. Sick Leave (SL) / Medical Leave (ML)

What it is: Leave for illness, injury, or medical procedures. Employees can take this when they’re unwell without using their earned leave balance.

How it works: Most state Shops Acts mandate 5–12 days of sick leave per year. A medical certificate is typically required if sick leave extends beyond 2–3 consecutive days. Sick leave usually cannot be carried forward or encashed. In some states, there’s a combined CL+SL pool rather than separate allocations.

In practice: 7–10 days is typical in corporate India. Progressive companies treat this generously because a generous sick leave policy reduces employees coming to work unwell a real productivity cost that most companies don’t measure.

4. Maternity Leave

What it is: Paid leave for female employees before and after childbirth. This is one of the few truly universal mandates in Indian employment law.

What the law says: 26 weeks (approximately 6 months) of fully paid maternity leave for the first two children, for employees who have worked for at least 80 days in the 12 months before the expected delivery date. For the third child onward, the entitlement reduces to 12 weeks. Adoption and surrogacy also covered under the 2017 amendment 12 weeks for women adopting a child under 3 months old.

Additional provisions: Employers with 50+ employees must provide a crèche facility. Work-from-home flexibility may be offered after maternity leave when the nature of the role allows.

In practice: Most Indian companies offer exactly the statutory 26 weeks. Progressive companies in tech have started offering longer periods 6 months is increasingly common at larger firms.

5. Paternity Leave

What it is: Leave for new fathers to support their partner and newborn after birth.

Legal status: There is no central legislation mandating paternity leave for private sector employees in India. Central government employees get 15 days. Private sector paternity leave is entirely policy-based companies decide if they offer it and how much.

In practice: 5–15 days is the common range in Indian corporates. Most mid-to-large companies and all MNCs offer it. Any company that claims to care about working parents needs paternity leave otherwise you’re providing maternity leave while expecting new fathers to show up the day after a birth.

6. Public Holidays

What it is: Mandatory days off for national and state-declared holidays.

How it works: Three national holidays are observed uniformly: Republic Day (26 January), Independence Day (15 August), and Gandhi Jayanti (2 October). State governments declare additional holidays typically 5–10 per year. Employees who work on a public holiday are generally entitled to compensatory off or premium pay.

In practice: Most Indian corporate policies include a ‘holiday list’ published at the start of each year. Floating holidays where employees can swap one fixed holiday for a day of personal significance are growing in urban companies.

7. Bereavement / Mourning Leave

What it is: Leave when an employee loses a close family member spouse, parent, child, or sibling.

Legal status: Not mandated under any central Indian labour law. Entirely a company policy.

In practice: 3–7 days for immediate family is the corporate norm. Not having bereavement leave and expecting an employee to use their earned leave when their parent has died is the kind of policy that quietly destroys team trust. It costs almost nothing to offer. The goodwill it generates is disproportionate to what it costs.

8. Marriage Leave

What it is: Time off for an employee’s own wedding.

Legal status: Not mandated anywhere in India. Policy only.

In practice: 3–5 days is the most common offering. Some companies make it available only once during employment and only for the first legal marriage. Without a marriage leave provision, employees use earned leave which still works, but recognising the occasion separately is a small gesture that employees notice.

9. Compensatory Off (Comp-off)

What it is: A day off granted in exchange for working on a weekly holiday, public holiday, or outside regular hours on a special project.

How it works: Employees work an extra day, earn a comp-off credit, and use it as a day off later. Most policies set an expiry use your comp-off within 30–90 days or lose it. Some companies offer cash payment for comp-offs not availed.

In practice: This is a practical necessity for any business where weekend or holiday work occasionally happens. Without a formal comp-off policy, employees feel exploited when they give up a day off and get nothing in return.

10. Leave Without Pay (LWP) / Loss of Pay (LOP)

What it is: When an employee takes time off after exhausting all paid leave balances, they go on LWP. The absent days are deducted from their salary.

How it works: LWP is automatic it’s not really ‘granted’, it’s what happens when paid leaves run out. It should be documented in the leave policy so employees understand it clearly, and it must be calculated correctly in payroll. LOP deductions must be accurate wrong calculations are a common source of salary disputes.

This is where leave management connected to payroll matters most. In a manual system, someone has to catch LWP cases before payroll runs and calculate the deduction. In a connected system, it happens automatically.

11. Menstrual / Period Leave

Legal status: Not a central mandate (though some state governments have discussed it). Company policy only.

In practice: 1–2 days per month, no documentation required, no questions asked. Companies like Zomato and Swiggy in India have introduced this. It’s a meaningful signal to female employees that the company acknowledges their physical reality. Growing in adoption, especially in tech companies with a significant female workforce.

12. Mental Health Days

Legal status: Not mandated. Often bundled with sick leave under progressive sick leave policies.

In practice: The younger Indian workforce increasingly expects mental health support as table stakes, not a perk. Some companies now explicitly allow 2–3 mental health days per year, self-certified, no stigma. The cost to the company is minimal. The message it sends is significant.

13. Study / Educational Leave

In practice: 3–10 days per year for employees pursuing approved certification or degree programmes. Common in IT, pharma, and financial services where continuous learning is operationally relevant. Some companies pay for the course and grant the leave a strong retention move for employees who want to grow.

14. Sabbatical Leave

In practice: Extended leave typically 4–12 weeks for long-tenured employees. Used for travel, personal projects, education, or rest. Usually unpaid, though some companies offer partial pay. Rare in India but growing. One of the most powerful retention tools for senior employees who might otherwise leave simply because they need a long break.

15. Volunteer / CSR Leave

In practice: 1–2 days per year for employees to volunteer with NGOs or company-supported CSR initiatives. Signals company culture. Low cost, high value for the subset of employees who care about it.

What Changed in 2026: Labour Code Updates

The four Labour Codes that came into force in late 2025 and 2026 changed some important eligibility rules that every HR team needs to know:

• Leave eligibility threshold: 240 days → 180 days. Previously, employees needed to complete 240 working days in a year to become eligible for earned leave. Under the new Occupational Safety, Health and Working Conditions Code, this reduces to 180 days. Your new hires get their statutory leave entitlement sooner.
• Contract employees: same leave benefits as permanent staff. Fixed-term and contract employees are now entitled to the same leave parameters as permanent employees. If your current policy differentiates between the two, it may no longer be compliant.
• Final settlement: 2 working days. Under the Industrial Relations Code, full-and-final settlement including leave encashment must now happen within 2 working days of the employee’s last day. Previously, most companies paid out at month-end. This is a material operational change.
• Four-day work week: structural accommodation. The new codes allow for compressed four-day work week structures, where daily hours increase in exchange for a three-day weekend. Leave policies under this model need to be recalibrated your existing CL and EL policies were built around 5-day, fixed-hour schedules.

Which Leaves Must Your Company Have? Priority Guide

This is the question most HR managers and business owners actually want answered. Here’s our practical priority guide 🔴 Must-have means legal exposure if missing, 🟡 Should-have means operational and cultural risk if missing, and 🟢 Good to have means competitive advantage in hiring and retention.

Building a Leave Policy That Actually Works

Having a list of leave types is only the starting point. How you implement them determines whether your leave policy builds trust or creates headaches.

• Write it down and share it during onboarding. A leave policy that exists only in HR’s head isn’t a policy it’s an opinion. Document every leave type: how many days, when it can be taken, how to apply, what documentation is required, what happens to unused balance. Give it to new employees on Day 1.
• Define the approval workflow clearly. Who approves leave? Is it the direct manager, HR, or both? What’s the minimum notice for earned leave? What happens when a team lead is on leave and can’t approve someone else’s request? Unclear approval workflows create more disputes than almost any other HR issue.
• Sync it to payroll. A leave policy only works if LOP deductions calculate correctly in payroll. If HR is manually tracking who’s on leave without pay and entering it into a separate payroll system before each salary run, errors are inevitable. The leave system and payroll need to talk to each other automatically.
• Review it annually. With the Labour Codes bringing significant changes, an annual review of your leave policy against current law is not optional anymore. What was compliant in 2023 may not be compliant in 2026.

How Waggex Handles Leave Management

We built Waggex’s Leave Management module to remove the administrative work that manual leave handling creates not to replace HR judgment, but to handle everything that doesn’t require it.

• Configure every leave type in the system. You can set up all the leave types from the table above: number of days, carry-forward rules, encashment eligibility, documentation requirements, and different policies for different employee categories. Do it once it applies automatically.
• Employees apply through the app, managers approve with one tap. The request goes in, the notification comes out, the approval goes back, the leave balance updates. No WhatsApp threads, no forwarded emails, no spreadsheet to update.
• LOP connects directly to payroll. When an employee exhausts their paid leave balance, LWP/LOP is automatically flagged and deducted in the payroll run no manual catch before salary day.
• HR sees the full picture. Leave calendars show who’s in and who’s out across the team. Managers don’t approve two people’s leave on the same day without realising it.
• Connected to attendance. Approved leaves auto-update attendance records. The attendance system and leave system share the same data no inconsistency between the two.

If you want to understand the full payroll compliance picture alongside leave management, our Payroll Compliance in India: Complete Guide (2026) covers statutory deadlines, LOP treatment, and the Labour Code changes in one place. And our explainer on What Is an Employee Leave Management System? walks through how the full approval-to-payroll flow works.

The Bottom Line

India’s leave landscape is not simple, and anyone who tells you it is either only operates in one state or hasn’t looked closely at what the Labour Codes changed in 2026. The statutory minimum varies by industry and state. The cultural expectations particularly around paternity leave, bereavement, and increasingly mental health have moved significantly in the last five years.

The companies that get leave management right aren’t necessarily the most generous they’re the most consistent. Clear policies, applied fairly, tracked accurately, and connected to payroll correctly. That combination is rarer than it should be, and employees notice both when it’s done well and when it isn’t.

If you’re reviewing your leave policy for 2026, the 🔴 must-have column in the table above is the place to start. From there, 🟡 should-haves are the ones your employees will most notice if they’re missing. The 🟢 good-to-haves are the ones that separate good employers from forgettable ones.