Contract Labour Act
Parthiv
(Querist) 03 March 2011
This query is : Resolved
What are the penalties as per CONTRACT LABOUR (REGULATION & ABOLITION) ACT,1970?
Kirti Kar Tripathi
(Expert) 03 March 2011
Chapter VI deal with Offences, penalty and cognizance of offence. The same is being produced below
CHAPTER VI
PENALTIES AND PROCEDURE
22. Obstructions.- (1) Whoever obstructs an inspector in the discharge of his duties
under this Act or refuses or willfully neglects to afford the inspector any reasonable
facility for making any inspection, examination, inquiry or investigation authorized
by or under this Act in relation to an establishment to which, or a contractor to
whom, this Act applies, shall be punishable with imprisonment for a term which may
extend to three months, or with fine which may extend to five hundred rupees, or with
both.
(2) Whoever willfully refuses to produce on the demand of an inspector any register
or other document kept in pursuance of this Act or prevents or attempts to prevent or
does anything which he has reason to believe is likely to prevent any person from
appearing before or being examined by an inspector acting in pursuance of his duties
under this Act, shall be punishable with imprisonment for a term which may extend to
three months, or with fine which may extend to five hundred rupees, or with both.
23. Contravention of provisions regarding employment of contract labour.- Whoever
contravenes any provision of this Act or of any rules made thereunder prohibiting,
restricting or regulating the employment of contract labour, or contravenes any condition
of a licence granted under this Act, shall be punishable with imprisonment for a term
which may extend to three months, or with fine which may extend to one thousand
rupees, or with both, and in the case of a continuing contravention with an additional
fine which may extend to one hundred rupees for every day during which such
contravention continues after conviction for the first such contravention.
24. Other offences.- If any person contravenes any of the provisions of this Act or
of any rules made thereunder for which no other penalty is elsewhere provided, he
shall be punishable with imprisonment for a term which may extend to three months, or
with fine which may extend to one thousand rupees, or with both.
25. Offences by companies.- (1) If the person committing an offence under this Act
is a company, the company as well as every person in charge of, and responsible to,
the company for the conduct of its business at the time of the commission of the offence
shall be deemed to be guilty of the offence and shall be liable to be proceeded
against and punished accordingly: Provided that nothing contained in this sub-section shall render any such person
liable to any punishment if he proves that the offence was committed without his
knowledge or that he exercised all due diligence to prevent the commission of such
offence.
(2) Notwithstanding anything contained in sub-section (1), where an offence under this
Act has been committed by a company and it is proved that the offence has been
committed with the consent or connivance of, or that the commission of the offence
is attributable to any neglect on the part of any director, manager, managing agent or any
other officer of the company, such director, manager, managing agent or such other
officer shall also be deemed to be guilty of that offence and shall be liable to be
proceeded against and punished accordingly.
Explanation.-- For the purpose of this section--
(a) "company" means any body corporate and includes a firm or other
association of individuals; and
(b) "director", in relation to a firm, means a partner in the firm.
26. Cognizance of offences.- No court shall take cognizance of any offence under this
Act except on a complaint made by, or with the previous sanction in writing of, the
inspector and no court inferior to that of a Presidency Magistrate or a magistrate of the
first class shall try any offence punishable under this Act.
27. Limitation of prosecutions.- No court shall take cognizance of an offence punishable
under this Act unless the complaint thereof is made within three months from the date on
which the alleged commission of the offence came to the knowledge of an inspector:
Provided that where the offence consists of disobeying a written order made by an
inspector, complaint thereof may be made within six months of the date on which the
offence is alleged to have been committed.
CHAPTER VI
