Yes. Under Section 7 of the Contract Labour (R&A) Act, 1970, every principal employer of a covered establishment must apply for registration in Form I before engaging contract labour. The Registering Officer issues a Certificate of Registration in Form II on satisfying themselves of the application. Operating a covered establishment without registration is a punishable offence under Section 9 of the Act — punishable with imprisonment up to 3 months, or a fine up to Rs 1,000, or both. Registration is establishment-specific: if your company has five factories in three states, each factory that engages 20 or more contract workers requires a separate CLRA registration under the appropriate state or central authority.