Employees’ State Insurance Act, 1948
45G. Other modes of recovery
(1) Notwithstanding the issue of a certificate to the Recovery
Officer under section 45C, the Director General or any other officer authorized
by the Corporation may recover the amount by any one or more of the modes
provided in this section.
(2) If any amount is due from any person to any factory or
establishment or, as the case may be, the principal or immediate employer who
is in arrears, the Director General or any other officer authorized by the
Corporation in this behalf may require such person to deduct from the said
amount the arrears due from such factory or establishment or, as the case may be,
the principal or immediate employer under this Act and such person shall comply
with any such requisition and shall pay the sum so deducted to the credit of
the Corporation:
PROVIDED that nothing in this sub-section shall apply
to any part of the amount exempt from attachment in execution of a decree of a
civil court under section 60 of the Code of Civil Procedure, 1908.
(3) (i) The Director General or any other officer authorized by
the Corporation in this behalf may, at anytime or from time to time, by notice
in writing, require any person from whom money is due or may become due to the
factory or establishment or, as the case may be, the principal or immediate
employer or any person who holds or may subsequently hold money for or on
account of the factory or establishment or, as the case may be, the principal
or immediate employer, to pay to the Director General either forthwith upon the
money becoming due or being held or at or within the time specified in the
notice (not being before the money becomes due or is held) so much of the money
as is sufficient to pay the amount due from the factory or establishment or, as
the case may be, the principal or immediate employer in respect of arrears or
the whole of the money when it is equal to or less than that amount.
(ii) A notice under this sub-section may be
issued to any person who holds or may subsequently hold any money for or on
account of the principal or immediate employer jointly with any other person
and for the purposes of this sub-section, the shares of the joint-holders in
such account shall be presumed, until the contrary is proved, to be equal.
(iii) A copy of the notice shall be forwarded
to the principal or immediate employer at his last address known to the Director
General or, as the case may be, the officer so authorized and in the case of a
joint account to all the joint-holders at their last addresses known to the
Director General or the officer so authorized.
(iv) Save as otherwise provided in this sub-section,
every person to whom a notice is issued under this sub-section shall be bound
to comply with such notice, and, in particular, where any such notice is issued
to a post office, bank or an insurer, it shall not be necessary for any pass
book, deposit receipt, policy or any other document to be produced for the
purpose of any entry, endorsement or the like being made before payment is made
notwithstanding any rule, practice or requirement to the contrary.
(v) Any claim respecting any property in
relation to which a notice under this sub-section has been issued arising after
the date of the notice shall be void as against any demand contained in the
notice.
(vi) Where a person to whom a notice under
this sub-section is sent objects to it by a statement on oath that the sum
demanded or any part thereof is not due to the principal or immediate employer
or that he does not hold any money for or on account of the principal or
immediate employer, then, nothing contained in this sub-section shall be deemed
to require such person to pay any such sum or part thereof, as the case may be,
but if it is discovered that such statement was false in any material
particular, such person shall be personally liable to the Director General or
the officer so authorized to the extent of his own liability to the principal
or immediate employer on the date of the notice, or to the extent of the
principal or immediate employer's liability for any sum due under this Act,
whichever is less.
(vii) The Director General or the officer so
authorized may, at any time or from time to time, amend or revoke any notice
issued under this sub-section or extend the time for making any payment in
pursuance of such notice.
(viii) The Director General or the officer so
authorized shall grant a receipt for any amount paid in compliance with a
notice issued under this sub-section and the person so paying shall be fully
discharged from his liability to the principal or immediate employer to the
extent of the amount so paid.
(ix) Any person discharging any liability to
the principal or immediate employer after the receipt of a notice under this
sub-section shall be personally liable to the Director General or the officer
so authorized to the extent of his own liability to the principal or immediate
employer so discharged or to the extent of the principal or immediate
employer's liability for any sum due under this Act, whichever is less.
(x) If the person to whom a notice under this
sub-section is sent fails to make payment in pursuance thereof to the Director
General or the officer so authorized, he shall be deemed to be a principal or
immediate employer in default in respect of the amount specified in the notice
and further proceedings may be taken against him for the realization of the
amount as if it were an arrear due from him, in the manner provided in sections
45C to 45F and the notice shall have the same effect as an attachment of a debt
by the Recovery Officer in exercise of his powers under section 45C.
(4) The Director General or the officer authorized by the
Corporation in this behalf may apply to the court in whose custody there is
money belonging to the principal or immediate employer for payment to him of
the entire amount of such money, or if it is more than the amount due, an
amount sufficient to discharge the amount due.
(5) The Director General or any officer of the Corporation may,
if so authorized by the Central Government by general or special order, recover
any arrears of amount due from a factory or an establishment or, as the case
may be, from the principal or immediate employer by distraint and sale of its
or his movable property in the manner laid down in the Third Schedule to the
Income-tax Act, 1961.