India Survey Rules 2026: Overdue Surveys, Docking Extensions and Certificates for Cargo Vessels

The India survey rules, formally the Merchant Shipping (Survey, Audit and Certification) Rules, 2026, were notified on 17 September 2026 as G.S.R. 823(E) and came into force on publication. They apply to every Indian vessel, company and port that the Act requires to be surveyed, audited or certified, and to a foreign vessel and its company to the extent the Act and rules impose obligations on them in India or its coastal waters. For cargo vessels the first schedule adds a detailed regime for overdue surveys and for extensions of dry-docking, tail shaft and other mandatory statutory surveys, and it is the part of the Rules most likely to affect a docking plan.

This article summarises the general provisions of the India survey rules and the cargo vessel provisions from the Gazette text. The schedule’s wording refers to the owners or managers of a cargo vessel, and the application rule (rule 3) decides who is covered, so the Rules should be read for the specific ship.

What the India Survey Rules Require of Owners

Rule 4 subjects every vessel, company and port covered to the surveys, audits and inspections in the annexed schedules, which include cargo vessels, passenger ships, high-speed craft, mobile offshore drilling units, Indian coastal and river-sea vessels, ISM audits, domestic safety management audits and ISPS audits. Under rule 5 the owner, operator, master or agent applies to the Director-General, the Mercantile Marine Department or the recognised organisation at least seven days before the desired date of a survey for a vessel, and thirty days before an audit of a company or port, unless the Director-General allows less in writing. Surveys follow the IMO’s Harmonized System of Survey and Certification (rule 7).

Rule 6 puts a readiness duty on the owner, operator and master. The vessel’s structure, machinery and equipment must be clean, operational and accessible; logbooks, safety management manuals, oil record books and training records must be updated and available; necessary crew must be available to operate equipment and answer questions; and known deficiencies must have been rectified in advance or, if not, reported to the surveyor or auditor before the survey or audit starts. After a certificate is issued, no change to the structure, equipment, systems or operational procedures it covers may be made without prior approval, except in an emergency, in which case the Director-General or recognised organisation is told at the earliest opportunity and a follow-up survey is carried out. Every vessel carries the original, a valid digital copy or a permitted copy of each required certificate.

When a Certificate Stops Being Valid

Rule 11 puts the duty on the owner, operator and master to complete every annual, intermediate, periodic and additional survey within its window, and says that if a required survey is not completed within its window the certificate may become invalid by operation of the convention and no vessel is to proceed to sea until the survey is carried out and the certificate endorsed or reissued. Completing a survey is not enough on its own: sailing past the due date without an endorsed certificate is presumed to be a contravention even if the survey was done. Rule 10(4) states that failure to complete a required annual or intermediate verification within the convention window makes the certificate cease to be valid unless an extension is granted. Under rule 10(5) the Director-General may extend validity only in exceptional circumstances and where the convention permits, to let the ship reach a survey port or in force majeure; unless a convention says otherwise the extension does not exceed three months, and the ship may not leave the survey port without the survey completed and a new certificate issued.

Overdue Surveys and Extensions for Cargo Vessels

Schedule I deals with these in items 11 and 12.

• Overdue surveys. Owners or managers apply for surveys within the designated window. To carry out surveys outside the window, or to start surveys that are already overdue, they must obtain the Director-General’s prior concurrence.
• No extension for commercial operation. No statutory certificate is extended beyond its validity for the purpose of commercial operation. If the ship is not in the survey port when the certificate expires, the Director-General may extend validity by up to three months, only so the ship can complete its voyage to that port.
• Who applies. Applications for extension of renewal or docking surveys go through the top management under the ISM Code or the designated person ashore, and must follow the SOLAS, Load Line, MARPOL or other applicable convention provisions.
• Planning evidence. No extension is granted for commercial reasons or for insufficient advance planning. Owners and managers must give clear documentary evidence of diligent and timely planning; generic correspondence such as routine dry-dock booking letters does not suffice. If the Director-General is satisfied that the owners took all necessary steps to secure a dry dock but could not for reasons beyond their control, a one-month extension may be considered, subject to satisfactory afloat surveys by the classification society and a class certification of seaworthiness for the extension period. In exceptional cases up to two further months may be granted for an underwater CCTV survey in the presence of class or the recognised organisation, a review of progress of other afloat surveys, and evidence of continued efforts to obtain dry-docking in India or abroad. Approval is not guaranteed.

An expedited route exists for cargo vessels (excluding offshore supply vessels) of not more than twenty years of age, and offshore supply vessels of not more than fifteen. The conditions are:

• no pending or overdue class or statutory surveys and no outstanding class recommendations or conditions affecting certification;
• satisfactory performance and maintenance history in the current certification period, and no significant modification or damage repair requiring an additional survey;
• no more than three conditions of class, none previously extended;
• no major non-conformities in the last three consecutive Safety Management Certificate audits of the vessel and Document of Compliance audits of the company;
• no extensions requested for port State control or flag State inspection deficiencies, and no detention under any MoU or at a flag State inspection in the current certification period;
• no involvement in a marine casualty; and
• no more than thirty-six months between two dockings.

Applications go to a recognised organisation authorised for the purpose, which may extend surveys, including the docking and tail shaft surveys, for one month and forward its report to the Director-General for a further extension of up to two months, with a total of no more than three months from the expiry of the full-term certificates. Beyond one month the ship must pass a satisfactory CCTV inspection of the hull and appendages, propeller and rudder by the recognised organisation.

The same Rules recognise valid convention certificates issued by another administration but allow the Director-General to decline one and take control measures or detain the ship under section 307 of the Act if the ship’s condition does not substantially meet it (rule 14), and allow certificates to be suspended or cancelled, after a hearing except in urgent cases, if a ship ceases to comply, an unauthorised alteration is made or a certificate was obtained by false information (rule 13). Penalties follow rule 21: up to fifty thousand rupees, and up to five thousand rupees a day for a continuing breach, where the Act sets none.

Other administrations take a different approach to overdue certificates; see A Statutory Certificate Extension Is Not Permission to Keep Trading. The related Indian port state control and safety management rules are covered in India Port State Control Rules 2026 and India Safety Management Rules 2026, and all of the 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 schedules, which also set out the list of certificates and applicable surveys for each ship type and the fees, should be read in the Rules themselves.

• Merchant Shipping (Survey, Audit and Certification) Rules, 2026, G.S.R. 823(E), 17 September 2026, rules 3 to 14 and 21 and Schedule I items 11 and 12 (English text follows the Hindi)
• Merchant Shipping Act, 2025 (24 of 2025)

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