The West Bengal Relief Undertakings ( Special Provisions ) Act, 1971

Registered No. C207 
 
No. 68A(V) 
Tatrutta 
 
    
\-717-1 
Extraordinary 
          
    
Published by Authority 
         
                   
                   
WAIIIA 22 j 
  
THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 11, 1971 
      
[SAKA 1892 
PART V.—Acts of the Parliament of India assented to by the President and Acts enacted and 
Ordinances promulgated by the President. 
GOVERNMFNT OF INDIA 
17 of WO. 
1 of 1960, 
MINISTRY OF LAW 
(Legislative Department) 
New Delhi, the 11th February, 19711 Magha 22, 1892 (Saka). 
The following President's Act enacted on the Ilth Feb-
ruary, 1971, is published for genera! information:— 
THE WEST BENGAL RELIEF UNDERTAKINGS 
(SPECIAL PROVISIONS) ACT, 1971. 
No, 4 of 1971 
Enacted by the President in the Twenty-second Year of the 
Republic of India. 
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. (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. 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 ; 
Short title, 
extent and 
OMM011013-
moot. 
Daftni-
ti one. 
509b 	 THE CALCUTTA GAZETTE, EXTRAORDINARY,. FEBRUARY IL 1971 	 [PArcr: 
(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 under-
taking 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 Govern-
ment 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 Govern-
ment or a Government company. 
Declara-
tion of relief 
under- 
taking. 
Applica-
tion of 
zertain 
enactments 
and con-
tracts, 
agree-
ments, etc., 
to relief 
under-
taking. 
3. 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 noti-
fication, 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. 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 under-
taking) 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 en-
forceable with such modifications and in such 
THE CALCUTTA GAZETTE, EXTRAORDINARY, FEBRUARY 11, -19.71 	 00 
5. A n.:tification issued under section 4 shall have effect 
notwithstanding anything to the contrary contained in any 
other law, agreement or instrument or any decree or' order of 
a court, tribunal, officer or other authority. 
6. Any remedy for the enforcement of any right, pri-
vilege, obligation or liability referred to in clause (b) of sec-
tion 4 and suspended or modified by a notification under that 
section shall, in accordance with the terms of the notification, 
be suspended or modified, and all proceedings relating there-
to pending before any court, tribunal, officer or other autho-
rity shall accordingly be stayed or be continued subject to 
such modification, so, however, that on the notification 
ceasing to have effect— 
Over-
riding 
effect of 
notifica-
tion under 
section 4. 
Suspension 
or modi-
fication of 
certain 
remedies, 
rights etc., 
stay of 
procee-
dings, their 
revival and 
conti-
nuance. 
(a) any right, privilege, obligation or liability so suspend-
ed or modified shall revive and be enforceable as 
if the notification had never been issued ; and 
1;,) any proceeding so stayed shall be proceeded with 
subject to .the provisions of any law which may 
then be in force from the state which had been 
reached when the proceeding was stayed. 
7. Tn computing the period of limitation for the enforce-
ment of any right, privilege, obligation or liability referred 
to in clause (b) of section 4, the period during which it or 
the remedy for the enforcement thereof was suspended, shall 
be excluded. 
Period of 
limitation. 
8. (1) The State Government may, subject to the con- Power to 
dition of previous publication, make rules to carry out the make rule.*  
provisions of this Act. 
(2) In particular and without prejudice to the generality 
of the foregoing power, such rules may provide for all or any 
of the following matters, namely : — 
(a) the rates of wages payable to the workmen and their 
workloads and the salary payable to the staff, the 
payment of bonus, gratuity, compensation, and 
other benefits ; 
(b) the manner in which the relief undertaking should 
be run ; 
(e) the strength of staff and labour to be employed for 
running the relief undertaking economically ; 
(d) the manner in which the net profits or net losses or 
surplus funds should be appropriated or disposed 
of ; 
(e) the percentage of profits to be utilised for the benefit 
of the persons employed in the undertaking and 
the manner of its utilisation ; 
(h the manner in which, and the extent to which the re-
presentatives of the workmen may be associated 
with, or may participate in the management of the 
relief undertaking. 
(3) All rules made under this section shall, as soon as 
possible after they are made, be laid before the Legislative 
Assembly for a period of not less than fourteen days and shall 
be subject to such modifications as the Legislative Assembly 
may make during. the session in which 'thnv are so laid ar the 
f 
509 d 	 THE CALCUTTA GAZETTE, EXTRAORDINARY, FEBRUARY 11, 1971 	 [PART V 
THE SCHEDULE 
[See section 4(a)] 
1. The Industrial Employment (Standing Orders) Act, 
1946 (20 of 1946). 
2. The Industrial Disputes Act, 1947 (14 of 1947). 
3. The Minimum Wages Act, 1948 (11 of 1948). 
4. The West Bengal Shops and Establishments Act, 1963 
(West Bengal Act XIII of 1963). 
V. V. GIRT, 
President. 
N. D. P. NAMBOODTRIPAD, 
Joint Secy. to the Govt. of India. 
Reasons for the enactment 
A number of industrial undertakings in West Bengal have closed down 
recently for various reasons. In some cases, the State Government have 
advanced loans to these undertakings or guaranteed the loans made by banks 
to such undertakings. In certain others, the State Government have taken 
over the management of the industrial undertakings either under the Industries 
(Development and Regulation) Act, 1951, or any other law for the 
time being in force. In order to enable the State Government to revive and 
re-start these industrial 'undertakings and operate them efficiently and 
thereby provide employment to a large number of workers, it is essential 
that the State Government should have suitable powers to free the industrial 
undertakings for a short period from certain financial obligations incurred 
in the past and to exempt them from the scope of certain labour laws. The 
Act provides for such powers being vested in the State Government. 
Similar legislation has been enacted in States of Maharashtra, Gujarat, 
Madhya Pradesh, Kerala, Rajasthan and Tamil Nadu. 
2. As it is not practicable to refer the present legislation to the Con-
sultative Committee of Parliament on West Bengal Legislation, it has been 
decided, in view of the urgency of the matter, to enact the present legislation 
without such reference. 
P. M. NAYAK, 
Secy. to the Govt. of India, 
Ministry of Labour, Employment 
and Rehabilitation (Department 
of Labour and Employment). 
Printed and published by the Superintendent, Government Printing, West Bengal 

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