1. The Act, in citation form
The legislative instrument is the Haryana Lifts and Escalators (Amendment) Act, 2020 — Haryana Act No. 27 of 2020. It amends the principal Haryana Lifts and Escalators Act, 2008.
The amendment was published in the Haryana Gazette Extra-Ordinary, Number 151-2020/Ext, dated 15 October 2020.
The full text of both the principal 2008 Act and the 2020 Amendment is available in the Sources section at the bottom of this page. We encourage readers — particularly elected representatives, RWAs, and journalists — to read the original gazette notification rather than relying on summaries (including this one).
2. What it actually requires
The amendment introduces a positive obligation on the owner of a high-rise building to install a power-backup system that can run the lift continuously during a grid outage. The statute uses the language “Lift Inverter / Emergency Rescue Device”, treating those terms as equivalent. In other words, the obligation is on the function (uninterrupted backup), not any specific brand or patented technology.
This is meaningfully different from the pre-existing requirement:
- Before 2020: Buildings had to install a standard Automatic Rescue Device (ARD) — a battery-operated system that, after a pause of typically 30 seconds or more, moves the lift to the nearest floor and opens the doors so passengers can exit.
- After the 2020 amendment: Buildings above the height threshold must install a system that supplies the lift through the power cut, with no stoppage. Passengers reach their intended floor and the lights stay on throughout.
3. ARD vs ERD — the technical distinction
The two systems address the same problem (loss of grid power) with fundamentally different architectures. The distinction matters because most building owners conflate them.
| Behaviour | Standard ARD | ERD-class backup |
|---|---|---|
| Response to outage | Lift stalls, then activates after a pause | Power supplied through the outage; lift never stops |
| Typical pause | ~30 seconds or longer | Sub-cycle (milliseconds), imperceptible |
| Cabin lights | Cut, then restored | Continuous |
| Where the lift goes | Nearest floor only; doors open and trip ends | The passenger's intended destination |
| Backup duration | Minutes; one rescue cycle | Typically 1 to 12 hours of normal operation |
ARD is mandated nationally under IS 14665 Part 3, Clause 9.5 (Bureau of Indian Standards). Haryana's 2020 amendment goes further — it mandates the ERD-class function as a separate, additional requirement.
4. Scope and the 15-metre threshold
The obligation applies to buildings above 15 metres in height. For context, that threshold typically captures any building of approximately five storeys or more — covering most modern residential societies, commercial offices, hospitals, and hotels in Haryana's urbanised districts (Gurugram, Faridabad, Panchkula).
The threshold deliberately excludes low-rise buildings where a brief stoppage is a minor inconvenience rather than a safety hazard.
5. Enforcement & gaps
Enforcement is vested in the office of the Chief Electrical Inspector, Haryana, which already has the statutory machinery for lift licensing and inspection under the 2008 principal Act. New installations cannot obtain a fresh lift permit without satisfying the ERD requirement.
What the amendment does not do, equally importantly:
- It does not specify a minimum backup runtime (1 hour vs 12 hours). Building owners can choose a system at the lower end of capability and remain compliant on paper.
- It does not specify a switchover-time threshold (e.g. “under 100ms”), which means a slow ERD that produces visible flicker is technically compliant.
- It does not specify enforcement penalties at a level that has visibly shifted builder behaviour in tier-2 districts. Anecdotal reports from RWAs in Gurugram suggest mixed compliance.
- It does not extend retroactively to buildings constructed before 2020 with operating ARDs. Retrofit is not statutorily required.
Each of these is a tractable gap that a successor amendment — or a parallel central law — could address.
6. Why it matters nationally
India ranks second globally for elevator-related accidents. Mumbai alone has logged approximately eight elevator fatalities annually with a rising trend. Reported root causes consistently point to cheap components and inadequate maintenance rather than the absence of backup power per se. But the consequences of those failures are sharply worsened by what happens during an outage: a stalled cabin, dark and silent, with passengers trapped for tens of minutes before help arrives.
Haryana's amendment is not a complete answer to lift safety in India. It is, however, the only existing template for a function-level backup mandate written into state statute. If a national framework were to be drafted, this is the most-tested starting text.
7. Limits of this case study
- We have not yet been able to file or receive Right to Information (RTI) responses from the Haryana Chief Electrical Inspector establishing post-2020 compliance rates or enforcement actions. That data, when published, will materially update Section 5.
- We have not yet sourced a state-by-state elevator-fatality dataset. Claims of the form “Haryana has fewer lift accidents because of this policy” cannot currently be verified against comparable data, and we therefore do not make them.
- We have not directly interviewed officials from the Haryana Department of Industries or the Chief Electrical Inspector. Future revisions of this page will aim to.
Are you a Haryana RWA office-bearer, lift installer, building inspector, or compliance lawyer with first-hand experience of how the 2020 amendment is being enforced (or ignored)? Email tips@liftinverter.com. We source-protect contributors who request it.