Appointment of Inspectors :
By notification, the appropriate Government may appoint as many Inspectors, as it deems fit, for the purposes of the Act. The Appropriate Government may, by general or special orders, define the area to which the authority or an Inspector so appointed shall extend and where two or more Inspectors are appointed for the same area, also provide, by such order, for the distribution or allocation of work to be performed by them. Every inspector shall be deemed to be a public servant within the meaning of Section 21 of the IPC [Section 7(A)].
Powers of inspectors: An inspector may exercise all or any of the following powers, for the purpose of ascertaining the compliance of the various provisions of the Act, namely,
• To require an employer to furnish such information as he may consider necessary,
• To enter and inspect, at all reasonable hours, any premises of or place in any factory, mine, oilfield, plantation, port, railway company, shop or other establishment to which this Act applies, for the purpose of examining any register, record or notice or other documents required to be kept or exhibited under this Act or the rules made thereunder.
• To examine the employer or any person whom he finds in such premises or place and who, he has reasonable cause to believe is an employee employed therein.
• To make copies of, or take extracts from, any register, record, notice or other document, as he may consider relevant, and where he has reason to believe that any offence under this Act has been committed by an employer, search and seize with such assistance as he may think fit, such register, record, notice or other document as he may consider relevant in respect of that offence,
• to exercise such other powers as may be prescribed.
Any person required to produce any type of document or to give any information by an inspector shall be deemed to be legally bound to do so within the meaning of Sections 175 and 176 of the IPC and the provisions of the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973 shall apply to any search or seizure under this Section as they apply to any search or seizure made under the authority of a warrant issued under Section 94 of the code.
In this way, we can say that the inspector has got all the executive powers to implement the provisions of the Act [Section 7(B)].
Machinery for enforcement of the act or rules in central spheres: All Assistant Labour Commissioners (Central) have been appointed as Controlling Authorities and all the Regional Labour Commissioners (Central) as Appellate Authorities.