Payment of Bonus Act, 1965
No: 21 Dated: Sep, 25 1965
THE PAYMENT OF BONUS ACT, 1965
ACT NO. 21 OF 1965
An Act to provide for the payment of bonus to persons employed in certain establishments and for matters connected therewith.
BE it enacted by Parliament in the Sixteenth Year of the Republic of India as follows:—
1. Short title, extent and application.—(1) This Act may be called the Payment of Bonus Act, 1965.
(2) It extends to the whole of India.
(3) Save as otherwise provided in this Act, it shall apply to—
(a) every factory; and
(b) every other establishment in which twenty or more persons are employed on any day during an accounting year:
Provided that the appropriate Government may, after giving not less than two months’ notice of its intention so to do, by notification in the Official Gazette, apply the provisions of this Act with effect from such accounting year as may be specified in the notification, to any establishment or class of establishments [including an establishment being a factory within the meaning of sub-clause (ii) of clause (m) of section 2 of the Factories Act, 1948 (63 of 1948)] employing such number of persons less than twenty as may be specified in the notification; so, however, that the number of persons so specified shall in no case be less than ten
(4) Save as otherwise provided in this Act, the provisions of this Act shall, in relation to a factory or other establishment to which this Act applies, have effect in respect of the accounting year commencing on any day in the year 1964 and in respect of every subsequent accounting year:
Provided that in relation to the State of Jammu and Kashmir*, the reference to the accounting year commencing on any day in the year 1964 and every subsequent accounting year shall be construed as reference to the accounting year commencing on any day in the year 1968 and every subsequent accounting year:]
[Provided further that when the provisions of this Act have been made applicable to any establishment or class of establishments by the issue of a notification under the proviso to sub-section (3), the reference to the accounting year commencing on any day in the year 1964 and every subsequent accounting year or, as the case may be, the reference to the accounting year commencing on any day in the year 1968 and every subsequent accounting year, shall, in relation to such establishment or class of establishments, be construed as a reference to the accounting year specified in such notification and every subsequent accounting year.]
(5) An establishment to which this Act applies shall continue to be governed by this Act notwithstanding that the number of person employed therein falls below twenty[or, as the case may be, the number specified in the notification issued under the proviso to sub-section (3)].
2. Definitions.—In this Act, unless the context otherwise requires,—
(1) “accounting year” means—
(i) in relation to a corporation, the year ending on the day on which the books and accounts of the corporation are to be closed and balanced;
(ii) in relation to a company, the period in respect of which any profit and loss account of the company laid before it in annual general meeting is made up, whether that period is a year or not;
(iii) in any other case—
(a) the year commencing on the 1st day of April; or
(b) if the accounts of an establishment maintained by the employer thereof are closed and balanced on any day other than the 31st day of March, then, at the option of the employer, the year ending on the day on which its accounts are so closed and balanced:
Provided that an option once exercised by the employer under paragraph (b) of this sub-clause shall not again be exercised except with the previous permission in writing of the prescribed authority and upon such conditions as that authority may think fit;
(2) “agricultural income” shall have the same meaning as in the Income-tax Act; (3) “agricultural income-tax law” means any law for the time being in force relating to the levy of tax on agricultural income;
(4) “allocable surplus” means—
(a) in relation to an employer, being a company [(other than a banking company)] which has not made the arrangements prescribed under the Income-tax Act for the declaration and payment within India of the dividends payable out of its profits in accordance with the provisions of section 194 of that Act, sixty-seven per cent. of the available surplus in an accounting year;
(b) in any other case, sixty per cent. of such available surplus;
(5) “appropriate Government” means—
(i) in relation to an establishment in respect of which the appropriate Government under the Industrial Disputes Act,1947 (14 of 1947), is the Central Government, the Central Government;
(ii) in relation to any other establishment, the Government of the State in which that other establishment is situate;
(6) “available surplus” means the available surplus computed under section 5;
(7) “award” means an interim or a final determination of any industrial dispute or of any question relating thereto by any Labour Court, Industrial Tribunal or National Tribunal constituted under the Industrial Disputes Act, 1947 (14 of 1947), or by any other authority constituted under any corresponding law relating to investigation and settlement of industrial disputes in force in a State and includes an arbitration award made under section 10A of that Act or under that law;
(8) “banking company” means a banking company as defined in section 5 of the Banking Companies Act, 1949 (10 of 1949), and includes the State Bank of India, any subsidiary bank as defined in the State Bank of India (Subsidiary Banks) Act, 1959 (38 of 1959), [any corresponding new bank specified in the First Schedule to the Banking Companies (Acquisition and Transfer of Undertakings) Act, 1970 (5 of 1970), 1 [any corresponding new bank constituted under section 3 of the Banking Companies (Acquisition and Transfer of Undertakings) Act, 1980 (40 of 1980),] any co-operative bank as defined in clause (vii) of section 2 of the Reserve bank of India Act, 1934 (2 of 1934),] and any other banking institution which may be notified in this behalf by the Central Government;
(9) “company” means any company as defined is section 3 of the Companies Act, 1956 (1 of 1956), and includes a foreign company within the meaning of section 591 of that Act;
(10) “co-operative society” means a society registered or deemed to be registered under the Co-operative Societies Act, 1912 (2 of 1912), or any other law for the time being in force in any State relating to co-operating societies;
(11) “corporation” means any body corporate established by or under any Central, Provincial or State Act but does not include a company or a co-operative society;
(12) “direct tax” means—
(a) any lax chargeable under—
(i) the Income-tax Act;
(ii) the Super Profits Tax Act, 1963 (14 of 1963);
(iii) the Companies (Profits) Surtax Act, 1964 (7 of 1964);
(iv) the agricultural income-tax law; and
(b) any other tax which, having regard to its nature or incidence, may be declared by the Central Government, by notification in the Official Gazette, to be a direct tax for the purposes of this Act;
(13) “employee” means any person (other than an apprentice) employed on a salary or wage not exceeding 1 [twenty-one thousand rupees] per mensem in any industry to do any skilled or unskilled manual, supervisory, managerial, administrative, technical or clerical work for hire or reward, whether the terms of employment be express or implied;