West Bengal Shops and Establishments Act, 1963
No: 13 Dated: Apr, 02 1963
THE WEST BENGAL SHOPS AND ESTABLISHMENTS ACT, 1963
West Bengal Act XIII of 1963
An Act to regulate holidays, hours of work, payment of wages and leave of person employed in Shops and Establishments.
It is hereby enacted in the Thirteenth Year of the Republic of India, by the Legislature of West Bengal, as follows :
1. Short title, extent, commencement and application. - (1) This Act may be called the West Bengal Shops & Establishments Act, 1963.
(2) It extends to the whole of West Bengal.
(3) It shall come into force on such date as the State Government may, by notification, appoint.
(4) It shall apply to the areas and to the classes of shops and establishments to which the Bengal Shops & Establishments Act, 1940 (Bengal Act No. 16 of 1940) applied immediately before the commencement of this Act ; and shall also apply to such other areas or to such other classes of shops or establishments as the State Government may, by notification, specify in this behalf.
2. Definitions. - In this Act, unless there is anything repugnant in the subject or context-
(1) "closed" means not open for the service of any customer or for any other purpose whatsoever relating to business ;
(2)"commercial establishment" means an advertising, commission, forwarding or commercial agency, or a clerical department of a factory situated outside the premises of the factory or any industrial or commercial undertaking, an insurance company, joint stock company, bank, broker’s office or exchange, any clinical establishment as defined in the West Bengal Clinical Establishment (Registration and Regulation) Act, 2010, ceremonial houses that are rented for different ceremonies, computer training centre, multigym, health care services, vocational training centre, tele calling services including Business Process Outsourcing and Knowledge Process Outsourcing, establishments of the cable, dish TV operators, different television and radio channel providers and operators, internet service providers and agents associated therewith, establishments dealing with different electronic media services, establishments dealing with courier services, different training centres, private airlines, water and road transport services and establishment which carries on any business, trade or profession or any work in connection with, or incidental or ancillary to, any business, trade or profession, and includes an establishment if any legal practitioner, medical practitioner, architect, engineer, accountant, tax consultant or any other technical or professional consultant with person employed therein, a society registered under any enactment in force for the time being, charitable or other trust, non-Governmental organizations with person employed therein, whether registered or not, which carries on, whether for purposes of gain or not, any business, trade or profession or any work in connection with, or incidental or ancillary to any business, trade or profession and such other class or classes of concerns or undertakings as the State Government may, after taking into consideration the nature of their work, by notification, declare to be commercial establishments for the purposes of this Act, but does not include a shop or an establishment for public entertainment or amusement :
(3) "day" means period of twenty-four hours beginning at midnight ;
(4) "employer" means a person owing or having charges of an establishment and includes an agent or a manager of, and any other person acting on behalf of such person in the general management or control of such establishment ;
(5) "establishments" a commercial establishment or an establishment for public entertainment or amusement ;
(6) "establishment for public entertainment or amusement" means a hotel, restaurant, eating house, cafe, cinema, theatre, game, parlour, amusement park, water park and includes such other class or classes of concerns or undertakings as the State Government may, after taking into consideration the nature of their work, by notification, declare to be for the purposes of this Act, establishment for public entertainment or amusement, but does not include a shop or a commercial establishment ;
(7) "half-day" means a continuous period of five hours and a half
(i) in the case of a shop or an establishment for public entertainment or amusement, beginning at the commencement, or ending on the termination, of the ordinary daily working hours of such shop or establishment, as the case may be, and
(ii) in the case of a commercial establishment, between the hours of xxx eight o"clock ante meridiem and xxx eight o"clock post meridiem ;
(8) "lock out" and "strike" have the same meaning as in the Industrial Disputes Act, 1947 (14 of 1947);
(9) "notification" means a notification published in the official gazette".
(10) "person employed" used in relation to a shop or an establishment means a person wholly or principally employed in connection with the business of the shop or the establishment, but does not include an owner of the shop or the establishment or the husband, wife, child, father, mother, brother or sister of such an owner who lives with and is dependent on, such owner ;
(11) "prescribed" means prescribed by rules made under this Act ;
(12) "registering authority" means the Chief Inspector of Shops and Establishments or any other person appointed in this behalf by the State Government as the registering authority for any area ;
(13) "shop" means any premise used wholly or in part for the sale of services to customers or for the wholesale or retail sale of commodities or articles, either for cash or on credit, and includes any offices, store rooms, god-downs or warehouses, whether in the same premises or elsewhere, used in connection with such sale or with storage of commodities or articles for the purpose of such sale and also includes such other class or classes of premises as the State Government may, after taking into consideration the nature of the work carried on there, by notification declare to be shops for the purposes of this Act, but does not include an establishment.
Explanation.-1 any doubt arises as to whether any premises are a shop or a commercial establishment or an establishment for public entertainment or amusement, the question shall be referred to the State Government by the registering authority, suo motu or on application and decision of the State Government thereon shall be final ;
(14) "shopkeeper" means a person owing or having charge of the business of a shop, and includes agent or manager of, and any other person acting on behalf of, such person in the general management or control of a shop ;
(15) "wages" means wages as defined in the Payment of Wages Act, 1936 (4 of 1936) ;
(16) "week" means a period of seven days (beginning at midnight on Tuesday) ; and
(17) "young person" means a person who has completed his fourteenth year but has not completed his eighteenth year.
3. Reference to time of day. - Reference to time of day in this Act shall be deemed to be references to Indian standard time, which is five and a half hours ahead of Greenwich mean time.