West Bengal Relief Undertakings (Special Provisions) Act, 1971
No: 4 Dated: Feb, 11 1971
THE WEST BENGAL RELIEF UNDERTAKINGS (SPECIAL PROVISIONS) ACT, 1971
No, 4 of 1971
An Act to enable the State Government to make special provisions for a limited period in respect of industrial relations, financial obligations and other like matters in relation to industrial undertakings the running of which is considered essential as a measure of preventing or of providing relief against, unemployment.
In exercise of the powers conferred by section 3 of the West Bengal State Legislature (Delegation of Powers) Act, 1970, the President is pleased to enact as follows:-
1. Short title, extent and commencement:- (1) This Act may be called the West Bengal Relief Undertakings (Special Provisions) Act, 1971.
(2) It extends to the whole of the State of West Bengal.
(3) It shall come into force on such date as the State Government may, by notification, appoint.
2. Definition:- In this Act, unless the context otherwise requires,—
(1) "Government company" has the meaning assigned. to it in section 617 of the Companies Act, 1956;
(2) "industry" means any business, trade, undertaking, manufacture or calling of employers. and includes any calling, service, employment, handicraft or industrial occupation or avocation of workmen, and the word "industrial" shall be construed accordingly ;
(3) "notification" means a notification published in the Official Gazette ;
(4) "relief undertaking" means a State industrial undertaking in respect of which a declaration under section 3 is in force ;
(5) "State industrial undertaking" means an industrial undertaking—
(a) which is started or which, or the management of which, is under any law or agreement acquired or otherwise taken over by the State Government or by a Government company and is run or proposed to be run by, or under the authority of, the State Government or a Government company ; or
(b) to which any loan, advance, or grant has been given, or in respect of any loan whereof, a guarantee has been given, by the State Government or a Government company.
3. Declaration of relief undertaking:- The State Government may, if it is satisfied that it is necessary or expedient so to do in the public interest, with a view to enabling the continued running of re-starting of a State industrial undertaking as a measure of preventing, or of providing relief against, unemployment, declare, by notification, that the State industrial undertaking shall, on and from such date and for such period as may be specified in the notification, be a relief undertaking:
Provided that the period so specified shall not, in the first instance, exceed one year but may, by a like notification, be extended, from time to time, by any period not exceeding one year at any one time, so, however, that no notification issued under this section shall in any case remain in force for more than five years in the aggregate.
4. Application of zertain enactments and contracts, agreements, etc., to relief undertaking:- The State Government may, if it is satisfied that it is necessary or expedient so to do for the purposes specified in section 3, direct, by, notification,—
(a) that in relation to any relief undertaking all or any of the enactments specified in the Schedule to this Act shall not apply or shall apply with such adaptations, whether by way of modification, addition or omission (which does not, however), affect the policy of the said enactments), as may be specified in such notification ; or
(b) that the operation of all or any of the contracts, assurances of property, agreements, settlements, awards, standing orders or other instruments in force (to which any relief undertaking is a party or which may be applicable to any relief undertaking) immediately before the date on which the; State industrial undertaking is declared to be a relief undertaking, shall remain suspended or that all or any of the rights, privileges, obligations and liablilities accruing or arising thereunder before the said date, shall remain suspended or shall be enforceable with such modifications and in such