Payment of Bonus Act, 1965
23. Presumption about accuracy of balance sheet and profit
and loss account of corporations and companies
(1) Where, during the course of proceedings before any
arbitrator or Tribunal under the Industrial Disputes Act, 1947 (14 of 1947), or
under any corresponding law relating to investigation and settlement of
industrial disputes in force in a state (hereinafter in this section and in 24[sections
24 and 25] referred to as the "said authority") to which any dispute
of the nature specified in section 22 has been referred, the balance sheet and
the profit and loss account of an employer, being a corporation or a company
(other than a banking company), duly audited by the Comptroller and Auditor
General of India or by auditors duly qualified to act as auditors of companies
under sub-section (1) of section 226 of the Companies Act, 1956 (1 of 1956),
are produced before it, then, the said authority may presume the statements and
particulars contained in such balance sheet and profit and loss account to be
accurate and it shall not be necessary for the corporation or the company to
prove the accuracy of such statements and particulars by the filing of an
affidavit or by any other mode:
PROVIDED that where the said authority is satisfied
that the statements and particulars contained in the balance sheet or the
profit and loss account of the corporation or the company are not accurate, it
may take such steps as it thinks necessary to find out the accuracy of such
statements and particulars.
(2) When an application is made to the said authority by any
trade union being a party to the dispute or where there is no trade union, by
the employees being a party to the dispute, requiring any clarification
relating to any item in the balance sheet or the profit and loss account, it
may, after satisfying itself that such clarification is necessary, by order,
direct the corporation or, as the case may be, the company, to furnish to the
trade union or the employees such clarification within such time as may be
specified in the direction and the corporation or, as the case may be, the
company, shall comply with such direction.