Section 120
Powers of Commissioner and authorised officers during inspection
(1)
In the course of an inspection or enquiry, the Commissioner or any authorised officer may —
(a)
examine orally any person whom he believes to be acquainted with the facts and circumstances of the employment of any person or any matter within the provisions of this Act, and to reduce into writing the answer given or statement made by that person; and such person shall be bound to answer truthfully all questions put to him; and the statement made by that person shall be read over to him, in the language in which he made it and, after correction, be signed by him or affixed with his thumb print, as the case may be;
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(b)
require the employer to —
(i)
produce before him all or any of the employees employed by him together with any contracts of service, books of account of salary, registers and other documents concerning the employees or their employment;
(ii)
answer such questions relating thereto as he may think proper to ask;
(c)
examine notices and all documents which are required to be kept under the provisions of this Act or any regulations made thereunder;
(d)
make copies of, or make extracts from, the contract of service, books of account of salary, registers or other documents required to be produced under paragraph (b);
(e)
take or remove for purposes of analysis samples of materials and substances used or handled by employees, except that the employer or his representative shall be notified of any such samples of materials or substances taken or removed for this purpose;
(f)
take possession of the contracts of service, books of account of salary, registers and other documents relating to the employees or their employment where in his opinion —
(i)
the inspection, copying or the making of extracts from the contract of service, books of account of salary, registers or other documents cannot reasonably be undertaken without taking possession of them;
(ii)
the contracts of service, book of account of salary, registers or other documents may be interfered with or destroyed unless he takes possession of them; or
(iii)
the contracts of service, books of account of salary, registers or other documents may be needed as evidence in any legal proceedings under this Act;
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(g)
take or remove for the purposes of an enquiry any other document concerning the employees or their employment.
(2)
No answer which a person is legally bound to give under subsection (1)(a) shall be proved against him in any criminal proceeding, except on a prosecution for giving false evidence by that answer.
(3)
Notwithstanding subsection (1)(b), no employee shall be required to leave or to cease from performing any work on which he is engaged if his absence or cessation from such work would endanger life or property or seriously disrupt any operation being carried on by his employer.
(4)
For the purpose of this section, the Commissioner and an authorised officer shall have the same powers of investigation as a police officer under Chapter XIII of the Criminal Procedure Code (Chapter 7).