What PSARA requires of an agency
No person can run a private security agency without a licence under s.4 of the Act. The licence is issued by the Controlling Authority of the state (usually an officer of the Home Department or police) for one district, several districts or the whole state, and is valid for five years and renewable. An agency deploying guards in three states needs three licences, and it must display each licence prominently at its office (s.13).
The Act also fixes who can be a guard: Indian citizens (or persons of a class permitted by the central government) with police or antecedent verification, physical fitness and prescribed training. Under the Private Security Agencies Central Model Rules 2020, fresh guards need a minimum of 100 hours of classroom and 60 hours of field training; ex-servicemen and ex-police get a shorter course. State rules may add conditions, so read your state's version.
The s.15 register and inspection
Section 15 requires every agency to maintain a register with the names and addresses of the management, the names, addresses, photographs and salaries of every guard and supervisor, and the names and addresses of the persons or organisations to whom guards are supplied. The Controlling Authority may inspect this register and the agency's premises at any time, and can suspend or cancel the licence for non-compliance.
In practice inspectors compare the register with the guard deployment at client sites: if a guard on a site is not in the register, or is shown at a salary below the state minimum wage for security guards, the agency has a problem. Keeping the register current is not a one-time exercise; each joining, exit, transfer and salary revision has to reach it.
- Licence number, validity and area of operation, displayed at the office.
- Guard register with photographs, verification status, training certificate and salary.
- Client list with site addresses and the number of guards deployed at each.
- Proof of EPF, ESIC and minimum-wage compliance for every guard.
- Uniform and identity card issued to each guard as prescribed.
PSARA and the client
Clients increasingly ask for the PSARA licence copy before signing a security contract, and government and PSU tenders make it mandatory. Since the client is also the principal employer for wage and PF purposes, a PSARA-compliant agency with clean attendance and wage records protects the client too. Our PSARA compliance checklist for security agencies lists the documents to keep ready for renewal and client audits.
Attendance and payroll records are the backbone of PSARA compliance: the salary in the s.15 register must match the wage register, the wage register must match days worked, and days worked must match the deployment at the client site.
An agency in Haryana with 150 guards across 22 client sites applies for renewal in the fifth year. The Controlling Authority asks for the s.15 register, training certificates and police verification for all 150 guards, the last six months of wage registers, and PF and ESIC challans. The agency finds 11 guards who joined in the last year without verification reports and 4 sites missing from the client list. Fixing these before filing avoids a suspended licence and a contractual breach with every client.
Attend Mitra's security-guard module keeps a site-wise deployment record, guard attendance with GPS and selfie, and shift verification, so an agency can produce who-was-deployed-where for any month during a PSARA inspection or client audit. The employee database stores guard documents and ID cards, and payroll exports give the wage register that must reconcile with the s.15 register.