Contact Labour (Regulation and Abolition) Act, 1970
28. Inspecting staff
(1) The appropriate government may, by notification in the
Official Gazette, appoint such persons as it thinks fit to be inspectors for
the purposes of this Act, and define the local limits within which they shall
exercise their powers under this Act.
(2) Subject to any rules made in this behalf, an inspector may,
within the local limits for which he is appointed-
(a) enter, at all reasonable hours, with such
assistance (if any), being persons in the service of the government or any
local or other public authority as he thinks fit, any premises or place where
contract labor is employed, for the purpose of examining any register or record
or notice required to be kept or exhibited by or under this Act or rules made
thereunder, and require the production thereof for inspection:
(b) examine any person whom he finds in any
such premises or place and who, he has reasonable cause to believe, is a
workman employed therein;
(c) require any person giving out work and any
workman, to give any information, which is in his power to give with respect to
the names and addresses of the person to, for and from whom the work is given
out or received, and with respect to the payments to be made for the work;
(d) seize or take copies of such register,
record of wages or notices or portions thereof as he may consider relevant in
respect of an offence under this Act which he has reason to believe has been
committed by the principal employer or contractor; and
(e) exercise such other powers as may be
prescribed.
(3) Any information required to produce any document or thing or
to give any information required by an inspector under sub-section (2) shall be
deemed to be legally bound to do so within the meaning of section 175 and
section 176 of the Indian Penal Code, 1860 (45 of 1860).
(4) The provisions of the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1898 (5 of
1898), shall, so far as may be, apply to any search or seizure under
sub-section (2) as they apply to any search or seizure made under the authority
of a warrant issued under section 98 of the said Code.2