Chapter VIII
Regulations, Rules and Bye-Laws
57. Power of Central Government to make regulations
The Central Government may, by notification in the Official Gazette, make regulations consistent with this Act for all or any of the following purposes, namely:–
(a) for prescribing the qualifications required for appointment as Chief Inspector or Inspector;
(b) for prescribing and regulating the duties and powers of the Chief Inspector and of Inspectors in regard to the inspection of mines under this Act;
(c) for prescribing the duties of owners, agents and managers of mines and of persons acting under them, and for prescribing the qualifications of managers of mines and of persons acting under them;
(d) for requiring facilities to be provided for enabling managers of mines and other persons acting under them to efficiently discharge their duties;
(e) for regulating the manner of ascertaining, by examination or otherwise, the qualifications of managers of mines and persons acting under them, and the granting and renewal of certificates of competency;
(f) for fixing the fees, if any, to be paid in respect of such examinations and of the grant and renewal of such certificates;
(g) for determining the circumstances in which and the conditions subject to which it shall be lawful for more mines than one to be under a single manager, or for any mine or mines to be under a manager not having the prescribed qualifications;
(h) for providing for the making of inquiries into charges of misconduct or incompetency on the part of managers of mines and persons acting under them and for the suspension and cancellation of certificates of competency;
(i) for regulating, subject to the provisions of the Indian Explosives Act, 1884 (IV of 1884), and of any rules made thereunder, the storage, conveyance and use of explosives;
(j) for prohibiting, restricting or regulating the employment of women in mines or in any class of mines or on particular kinds of labour which are attended by danger to the life, safety or health of such women and for limiting the weight of any single load that may be carried by a woman;
(k) for providing for the safety of the persons employed in a mine, their means of entrance there into and exist therefrom, the number of shafts or outlets to be furnished, and the fencing of shafts, pits, outlets, pathways and subsidence;
(l) for prohibiting the employment in amine either as manager or in any other specified capacity of any person except persons paid by the owner of the mine and directly answerable to the owner or manager of the mine;
(m) for providing for the safety of the roads and working places in mines, including the siting, maintenance and extraction of pillars and the maintenance of sufficient barriers between mine and mine;
(n) for the inspection of workings and sealed off fire–areas in a mine, and for the restriction of workings under rivers, tanks, water–courses, public roads and buildings and for requiring due precaution to be taken against the onrush of water into, outbreak of fire in or premature collapse of, any workings:
(o) for providing for the ventilation of mines and the action to be taken in respect of dust, fire, and inflammable and noxious gases, including precautions against spontaneous combustion, underground fire and coal dust;
(p) for providing for the care, and the regulation of the use, of all machinery and plant and of all electrical apparatus used for signalling or for other purposes of communication;
(q) for providing for the safety of persons present on haulage roads and for restricting the use of certain classes of locomotives underground;
(r) for providing for proper lighting of mines and regulating the use of safety lamps therein and for the search of persons entering a mine in which safety lamps are in use;
(s) for providing against explosions or ignitions or irruptions of or accumulations of water in mines and against danger arising therefrom and for prohibiting, restricting or regulating the extraction of minerals in circumstances likely to result in the premature collapse of or to result in or to aggravate the collapse of or irruptions of water or ignitions in mines;
(t) for prescribing the notices of accidents and dangerous occurrences, and the notices, reports and returns of mineral output, persons employed and other matters provided for by regulations, to be furnished by owners, agents and managers of mines, and for prescribing the forms of such notices, returns and reports, the persons and authorities to whom they are to be furnished, the particulars to be contained in them, and the time within which they are to be submitted;
(u) for prescribing the plans to be kept by owners, agents and managers of mines and the manner and places in which such plans are to be kept for purposes of record and for the submission of copies thereof to the Chief Inspector;
(w) for prescribing the form of, and the particulars to be contained in, the notice to be given by the owner, agent or manager of a mine under section 10;
(x) for prescribing the notice to be given by the owner, agent or manager of a mine before mining operations are commenced at or extended to any point within fifty yards of any railway subject to the provisions of the Indian Railways Act, 1890 (IX of 1890), or of any public work or classes of public works which the Central Government may, by general or special order, specify in this behalf;
(y) for the protection from injury, in respect of any mine when the workings are discontinued, of property vested in the Government or any local authority or railway company as defined in the Indian Railways Act, 1890 (IX of 1890);
(z) for requiring the fencing of any mine or part of a mine or any quarry, incline, shaft, pit or outlet, whether the same is being worked or not, or any dangerous or prohibited area, subsidence, haulage, tramline or pathway, where such fencing is necessary for the protection of the public; and
(zz) any other matter which has to be or may be prescribed.
58. Power of Central Government to make rules
The Central Government may, by notification in the Official Gazette, make rules consistent with this Act for all or any of the following purposes, namely:–
(a) for providing for the appointment of Chairman and members of Mining Boards, and for regulating the procedure of such Boards;
(b) for prescribing the form of the register referred to in sub–section 3 of section 23;
(c) for providing for the appointment of Courts of inquiry under section 24, for regulating the procedure and powers of such Courts, for the payment of travelling allowance to the members, and for the recovery of the expenses of such Courts from the manager, owner or agent of the mine concerned;
(d) for requiring the maintenance in mines wherein any women are employed or were employed on any day of the preceding twelve months of suitable rooms to be reserved for the use of children under the age of six years belonging to such women, and for prescribing, either generally or with particular reference to the number of women employed in the mine, the number and standards of such rooms, and the nature and extent of the amenities to be provided and the supervision to be exercised therein;
(e) for requiring the maintenance at or near pit–heads of bathing places equipped with shower baths and of locker–rooms for the use of men employed in mines and of similar and separate places and rooms for the use of women in mines where women are employed, and for prescribing, either generally or with particular reference to the numbers of men and women ordinarily employed in a mine, the number and standards of such places and rooms;
(f) for prescribing the standard of sanitation to be maintained and the scale of latrine and urinal accommodation to be provided at mines, the provision to be made for the supply of drinking–water, the supply and maintenance of medical appliances and comforts, and the training of men in ambulance work;
(g) For prohibiting the possession or consumption of intoxicating drinks or drugs in a mine and the entry or presence therein of any person in a drunken state;
(h) for prescribing the forms of notices required under section 36, and for requiring such notices to be posted also in specified language;
(i) for defining the persons who shall, for the purpose of section 37, be deemed to be persons holding positions of supervision or management or employed in a confidential capacity;
(j) for prohibiting the employment in mines of persons or any class of persons who have not been certified by a qualified medical practitioner to have completed their fifteenth year, and for prescribing the manner and the circumstances in which such certificates may be granted and revoked;
(k) for prescribing the form of the certificate of fitness required by section 40, the conditions subject to which and the circumstances in which they may be granted and the circumstances in which they may be revoked;
(l) for prescribing the form of registers required by section 48;
(m) for prescribing abstracts of this Act and of the regulations and rules and the language in which the abstracts and bye–laws shall be posted as required by sections 61 and 62;
(n) for requiring notices, returns and reports in connection with any matters dealt with by rules to be furnished by owners, agents and managers of mines, and for prescribing the forms of such notices, returns and reports, the persons and authorities to whom they are to be furnished, the particulars to be contained in them, and the times, within which they are to be submitted;
(o) for requiring the provision and maintenance in mines, wherein more than one hundred and fifty persons are ordinarily employed, of adequate and suitable shelters for taking food with revision for drinking water;
(p) for requiring the provision and maintenance in any mine specified in this behalf by the Chief Inspector or Inspector, wherein more than two hundred and fifty persons are ordinarily employed, of a canteen or canteens for the use of such persons;
(q) for requiring the employment in every mine wherein five hundred or more persons are ordinarily employed, of such number of welfare officers as may be specified and for prescribing the qualifications and the terms and conditions of, and the duties to be performed by, such welfare officers;
(r) for requiring the establishment of central rescue stations for groups of specified mines or for all mines in a specified area, and prescribing how and by whom such stations shall be established;
(s) for providing for the management of central rescue stations, and regulating the constitution, powers and functions of, and the conduct of business by the authorities (which shall include representatives of the owners and managers of , and of the miners employed in, the mines or groups of mines concerned) charged with such management;
(t) for prescribing the position, equipment, control , maintenance and functions of central rescue stations;
(u) for providing for the levy and collection of a duty of excise (at a rate not exceeding six pies per ton) on coke and coal produced in and despatched from mines specified under clause (r) in any group or included under clause (r) in any specified area, the utilisation of the proceeds thereof for the creation of a central rescue station fund for such group or area and the administration of such funds;
(v) for providing for the formation, training, composition and duties of rescue brigades; and generally for the conduct of rescue work in mines; and
(w) generally to provide for any matter not provided for by this Act or the regulations, provision for which is required in order to give effect to this Act.
59. Prior publication of regulations and rules
(1) The power to make regulations and rules conferred by sections 57 and 58 is subject to the condition of the regulations and rules being made after previous publication.
(2) The date to be specified in accordance with clause (3) of section 23 of the General Clauses Act, 1897 (X of 1897), as that after which a draft of regulations or rules proposed to be made will be taken under consideration, shall not be less than three months from the date on which the draft of the proposed regulations or rules is published for general information.
(3) Before the draft of any regulation is published under this section it shall be referred to every Mining Board which is, in the opinion of the Central Government concerned with the subject dealt with by the regulation, and the regulation shall not be so published until each such Board has had a reasonable opportunity of reporting as to the expediency of making the same and as to the suitability of its provisions.
(4) No rule shall be made unless the draft thereof has been referred to every Mining Board constituted in that part of the territories to which this Act extends which is affected by the rule, and unless each such Board has had a reasonable opportunity of reporting as to the expediency of making the same and as to the suitability of its provisions.
(5) Regulations and rules shall be published in the Official Gazette and, on such publication, shall have effect as if enacted in this Act.
(6) The provisions of sub–sections (1), (2) and (4) shall not apply to the first occasion on which rules referred to in clause (d) or clause (e) of section 58 are made.
(7) The regulations and rules made under sections 57 and 58 shall be laid before Parliament, as soon as may be, after they are made.
60. Power to make regulations without previous publication
Notwithstanding anything contained in sub–section (1), (2) and (3) of section 59, regulations under clause (i) and clauses (k) to (s) excluding clause (l) of section 57 may be made without previous publication and without previous publication and without previous reference to Mining Boards, if the Central Government is satisfied that for the prevention of apprehended danger or the speedy remedy of conditions likely to cause danger it is necessary in making such regulations to dispense with the delay that would result from such publication and reference:
Provided that any regulations so made shall not remain in force for more than two years from the making thereof.
61. Bye-laws
(1) The owner, agent or manager of a mine may, and shall if called upon to do so by the Chief Inspector or Inspector, frame and submit to the Chief Inspector or Inspector a draft of such bye–laws, not being inconsistent with this Act or any regulations or rules for the time being in force, for the control and guidance of the persons acting in the management of, or employed in, the mine as such owner, agent or manager may deem necessary to prevent accidents and provide for the safety, convenience and discipline of the persons employed in the mine.
(2) If any such owner, agent or manager–
(a) fails to submit within two months a draft of bye–laws after being called upon to do so by the Chief Inspector or Inspector, or
(b) submits a draft of bye–laws which is not in the opinion of the Chief Inspector or Inspector sufficient, the Chief Inspector or Inspector may–
(i) propose a draft of such bye–laws as appear to him to be sufficient, or
(ii) propose such amendments in any draft submitted to him by the owner, agent or manager as will, in his opinion, render it sufficient, and shall send such draft bye–laws or draft amendments to the owner, agent or manager as the case may be, for consideration.
(3) If within a period of two months from the date on which any draft bye–laws or draft amendments are sent by the Chief Inspector or Inspector to the owner, agent or manager under the provisions of sub–section (2), the Chief Inspector or Inspector and the owner, agent or manager are unable to agree as to the terms of the bye–laws to be made under sub–section (1), the Chief Inspector or Inspector shall refer the draft bye–laws for settlement to the Mining Board or, where there is no Mining Board, to such officer or authority as the Central Government may, by general or special order, appoint in this behalf.
(4) (a) When such draft bye–laws have been agreed to by the owner, agent or manager and the Chief Inspector or Inspector, or, when they are unable to agree, have been settled by the Mining Board or such officer or authority as aforesaid, a copy of the draft bye–laws shall be sent by the Chief Inspector or Inspector to the Central Government for approval.
(b) The Central Government may make such modification of the draft bye–laws as it thinks fit.
(c) Before the Central Government approves the draft bye–laws , whether with or without modifications, there shall be published, in such manner as the Central Government may think best adapted for informing the persons affected, notice of the proposal to make the bye–laws and of the place where copies of the draft bye–laws may be obtained, and of the time (which shall not be less than thirty days) within which any objections with reference to the draft bye–laws, made by or on behalf of persons affected should be sent to the Central Government.
(d) Every objection shall be in writing and shall state–
(i) the specific grounds of objections, and
(ii) the omissions, additions or modifications asked for.
(e) The Central Government shall consider any objection made within the required time by or on behalf of persons appearing to it to be affected, and may approve the bye–laws either in the form in which they were published or after making such amendments thereto as it thinks fit.
(5) The bye–laws, when so approved by the Central Government, shall have effect as if enacted in this Act, and the owner, agent or manager of the mine shall cause a copy of the bye–laws, in English and in such other language or languages as may be prescribed, to be posted up in some conspicuous place at or near the mine, where the bye–laws may be conveniently read or seen by the persons employed; and, as often as the same become defaced, obliterated or destroyed, shall cause them to be renewed with all reasonable dispatch.
(6) The Central government may, by order in writing rescin, in whole or in part, any bye–law so made, and thereupon such bye–law shall cease to have effect accordingly.
62. Posting up of abstracts from Act, regulations etc.
There shall be kept posted up at or near every mine in English and in such other language or languages as may be prescribed, the prescribed abstracts of the Act and of the regulations and rules.
