1. INTRODUCTION
Special Economic Zones (“SEZ”)
units are entitled to significant benefits under various Indian
legislations. However, these benefits are also accompanied by
certain restrictions. For instance, specific permissions were
required to move assets tagged to a particular SEZ unit out of the
SEZ. As a result, employees working in these SEZs were essentially
not allowed to work from home without obtaining specific
permissions. With the onset of the pandemic, the development
commissioners of various SEZs had also issued separate guidelines
to allow employees to work from home. In an endeavour to introduce
uniform guidance on the permissibility of work-from-home
arrangements, on July 14, 2022, the Ministry of Commerce and
Industry issued the Special Economic Zones (Third Amendment) Rules,
2022 (“Amendment Rules”), introducing
a new rule with respect to work from home arrangements for
employees working in SEZ units.
