Amendment status not verified — confirm the current text below against the official source.
(1) All wages payable fo a person employed in a shop or an establishment shall be paid not later than the tenth day of the month immediately succeeding that in respect df which such wages are payable. (2) Where any deduction has been made from the wages of any person employed in a shop or an establishment or any payment of wages to such person has not been made within the date referred to in sub-section (1), such person may, within a period of six months from the date on which the deduction from the wages was made or from the date referred to in sub-section (1), as (the case may be, make an application to such officer or authority as the State Govern- ment may, by notification, appoint in this behalf, for on order under sub-section (3): Provided that an application under this section may be admitted after the said period of six months if the applicant satisfies the officer or authority that he had sufficient cause for not making the application within such period. (3) The officer or authority to whom or to which an application under sub-section (2) is made may, after giving the applicant and the shop-keeper or employer concerned an opportunity of being heard and after making such further inquiry, if any, as may be necessary, by order, direct, without prejudice to any other action which may, under this Act or any other law, lie against the shop-keeper or employer, the payment to the applicant of the amount deducted from the wages or of the wages due, together with such compensation, not exceeding ten times the amount deducted in the former case and not exceeding ten rupees in the latter, as the officer or authority may think fit: Provided that no direction for the payment of compensa- tion shall be made in the case of delay in the payment of wages if the officer or authority• is satisfied that the delay was due to (a) a bona fide error or bona fide dispute as to the amount payable to the applicant, or (b) the occurrence of an emergency, or the existence of exceptional circumstances, such that the shop- keeper or the employer, as the case may be, was unable, though exercising reasonable diligence, to make prompt payment, or the failure of the applicant to apply for or accept payment. (4) If on hearing any application made under sub- section (2), the officer or authority is satisfied that it was either malicious or vexatious, the officer or authority may, by order, direct that a penalty not exceeding fifty rupees be paid by the applicant to the shop-keeper or employer concerned. (c) The West Bengal Shops and Establishments Act, 1963. 9 X111 of 1863.] (Section 15.) (5) Any amount directed to be paid by an order under sub-section (3) or sub-section (4) may be recovered by any Magistrate to whom the officer or authority making the order makes application in this behalf as if it were a fine imposed by such Magistrate. (6) An appeal shall lie from an order of the officer or authority dismissing any application made under sub- section (2) or giving any direction under sub-section (3) or sub-section (4), if made within thirty days of the date on which the order was made,— (a) where the shop or establishment concerned is situated in any area within Calcutta as defined in the Calcutta Police Act, 1866, to the Court of Small Causes, Calcutta, and (b) where it is situated in any other area, to the Munsif having jurisdiction over such other area, (7) Nothing in this section shall apply to any person to 4 of 1936. whom the Payment of Wages Act, 1936, applies under section 1 of that Act.