Section Text
(1) The State Government may, if it considers it expedient so to do, appoint a competent person to inquire into the causes of any accident occurring in a factory or into any case where a disease specified in 1 [the Third Schedule] has been, or is suspected to have been contracted in a factory, and may also appoint one or more persons possessing legal or special knowledge to act as assessors in such inquiry.
(2) The person appointed to hold an inquiry under this section shall have all the powers of a Civil Court under the Code of Civil Procedure, 1908 (5 of 1908), for the purposes of enforcing the attendance of witnesses and compelling the production of documents and material objects, and may also, so far as may be necessary for the purposes of the inquiry, exercise any of the powers of an Inspector under this Act; and every person required by the person making the inquiry to furnish any information shall be deemed to be legally bound so to do within the meaning of section 176 of the Indian Penal Code (45 of 1860).
(3) The person holding an inquiry under this section shall make a report to the State Government stating the causes of the accident, or as the case may be, disease, and any attendant circumstances, and addition any observations which he or any of the assessors may think fit to make.
(4) The State Government may, if it thinks fit, cause to be published any report made under this section or any extracts therefrom.
(5) The State Government may make rules for regulating the procedure at inquiries under this section.
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1. Substituted by Act 20 of 1987, section 28, for "the Schedule" (w.e.f. 1-12-1987).