India Safety Management Rules 2026: Audits, Designated Person and Certificates

The India safety management rules, the Merchant Shipping (Safety Management) Rules, 2026, were published in the Gazette on 7 July 2026 as G.S.R. 589(E) and came into force on publication. They replace the 2000 rules on management for the safe operation of ships and give the ISM Code its domestic legal frame under the Merchant Shipping Act 2025. They apply to Indian vessels and to the companies operating them, so they matter most to Indian owners and managers, but they also show how India now defines the audit cycle, the designated person and the certificate life that an Indian-flag fleet works to.

This article summarises the India safety management rules from the Gazette text. The Code remains the base document, and the Rules define it as the International Safety Management Code as amended from time to time.

Which Vessels and Companies the Rules Cover

Rule 2 applies the Rules to Indian vessels and to companies operating passenger ships of any size; oil tankers, chemical tankers, gas carriers, bulk carriers and cargo high-speed craft of 500 gross tonnage or more; other cargo vessels and mobile offshore drilling units of 500 gross tonnage or more; and domestic vessels of 500 gross tonnage or more. A domestic vessel is an Indian vessel operating in coastal waters, and separate rules provide a Domestic Document of Compliance and a Ship Safety Certificate for those vessels.

What the India Safety Management Rules Require of the Company

Rule 5 requires the company to establish, implement and maintain a safety management system in accordance with the Code, documented in a safety management manual approved by the Director-General; to provide the resources and shore-based support to run it; to ensure vessels are managed in accordance with it and that masters and crew are qualified, trained and familiar with it; and to run internal safety management system audits at intervals not exceeding twelve months, with corrective action for any non-conformity. In exceptional circumstances the interval may be extended by no more than three months. Rule 13 repeats the annual internal audit of the company and its vessels, requires the findings and corrective actions to be documented and kept, and requires annual external audits of the company holding a Document of Compliance and periodic external audits of each vessel holding a Safety Management Certificate.

Rule 6 lists what the system must contain. The policy is to achieve safety at sea, prevention of injury and loss of life, and protection of the environment; to provide safe practices and a safe working environment; to establish safeguards against all identified risks including cyber risks; and to improve the safety management skills of personnel ashore and on board, including preparing for emergencies. The system must also set out lines of responsibility and communication, procedures for reporting accidents, hazardous occurrences, non-conformities and near misses, internal audits and management reviews, emergency preparedness with drills and contingency plans, documentation and record-keeping, and a programme for verifying each vessel’s and the company’s compliance with mandatory requirements, including procedures to address deficiencies.

The Designated Person Ashore

Rule 7 requires a designated person ashore with direct access to the highest level of management, given the authority, resources and support to do the job, and an alternate designated person who takes over in their absence. The company gives the Director-General the name and contact details of both, and any change, without delay. Neither may be assigned other duties that would conflict with their responsibilities for safety and pollution prevention, and their qualifications, training and experience follow the rules on survey, audit and certification.

Document of Compliance and Safety Management Certificate

The Rules also provide an Interim Document of Compliance, valid for up to twelve months for a new company or one taking on a new type of vessel, and an Interim Safety Management Certificate, valid for up to six months for a new vessel on delivery, a vessel new to the company or a change of flag, with the ship’s internal audit planned within three months (rule 12). A recognised organisation can issue a Safety Management Certificate for five months, or the period the Director-General specifies, after an audit with no major non-conformity, until the full-term certificate is issued (rule 15).

Suspension and Penalties

Under rule 14 the Director-General may suspend a Document of Compliance for failure to comply with the Rules or the company’s system, for corrective action not completed in time, for a periodical verification not done, or for a major non-conformity, and may withdraw it after a hearing if the grounds continue. A Safety Management Certificate can be declared invalid on similar grounds. Rule 17 sets a penalty of up to fifty thousand rupees, with up to five thousand rupees for each day a continuing breach lasts, where the Act provides none, and states that a penalty or detention does not release the owner or master from correcting the non-compliance before the ship resumes operation.

How a detention abroad leads back to the safety management system is covered in Indian Flag Ship Detained Abroad, and the practical side of keeping an SMS usable is in Ship Safety Management System: A Practical Guide to Keeping the SMS Usable. The other 2026 rules are mapped in India’s Merchant Shipping Rules 2026: A Map for Ship Managers.

Sources

The summary above is taken from the English text of the Gazette notification. The forms for the certificates and the domestic vessel provisions are in the Rules themselves.

• Merchant Shipping (Safety Management) Rules, 2026, G.S.R. 589(E), 7 July 2026 (English text follows the Hindi)
• Merchant Shipping Act, 2025 (24 of 2025)

Cyber risk in the safety management system, including the IMO guidelines and the ClassNK second edition, is covered in Cyber Security Management System for Ships: What the IMO Guidelines and ClassNK’s Second Edition Expect.

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