16. Punishment for enforcement of bonded labour.—Whoever, after the commencement of this
Act, compels any person to render any bonded labour shall be punishable with imprisonment for a term
which may extend to three years and also with fine which may extend to two thousand rupees.
17. Punishment for advancement of bonded debt.—Whoever advances, after the commencement
of this Act, any bonded debt shall be punishable with imprisonment for a term which may extend to three
years and also with fine which may extend to two thousand rupees.
18. Punishment for extracting bonded labour under the bonded labour system.—Whoever
enforces, after the commencement of this Act, any custom, tradition, contract, agreement or other
instrument, by virtue of which any person or any member of the family of such person or any dependant
of such person is required to render any service under the bonded labour system, shall be punishable with
imprisonment for a term which may extend to three years and also with fine which may extend to two
thousand rupees; and, out of the fine, if recovered, payment shall be made to the bonded labourer at the
rate of rupees five for each day for which the bonded labour was extracted from him.
19. Punishment for omission or failure to restore possession of property to bonded
labourers.—Whoever, being required by this Act to restore any property to the possession of any bonded
labourer, omits or fails to do so, within a period of thirty days from the commencement of this Act, shall
be punishable with imprisonment for a term which may extend to one year, or with fine which may
extend to one thousand rupees, or with both; and, out of the fine, if recovered, payment shall be made to
the bonded labourer at the rate of rupees five for each day during which possession of the property was
not restored to him.
20. Abetment to be an offence.—Whoever abets any offence punishable under this Act shall,
whether or not the offence abetted is committed, be punishable with the same punishment as is provided
for the offence which has been abetted.
Explanation,—For the purpose of this Act, “abetment” has the meaning assigned to it in the Indian
Penal Code (45 of 1860).
21. Offences to be tried by Executive Magistrates.—(1) The State Government may confer, on
an Executive Magistrate, the powers of a Judicial Magistrate of the first class or of the second class
for the trial of offences under this Act; and, on such conferment of powers, the Executive Magistate,
on whom the powers are so conferred, shall be deemed, for the purposes of the Code of Criminal
Procedure, 1973 (2 of 1974), to be a Judicial Magistrate of the first class, or of the second class, as the
case may be.
(2) An offence under this Act may be tried summarily by a Magistrate.
22. Cognizance of offences.—Every offence under this Act shall be cognizable and bailable.
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23. Offences by companies.—(1) Where an offence under this Act has been committed by a
company, every person who, at the time the offence was committed, was in charge of, and was
responsible to, the company for the conduct of the business of the company, as well as the company, shall
be deemed to be guilty of the offence and shall be liable to be proceeded against and punished
accordingly.
(2) Notwithstanding anything contained in sub-section (1), where any offence under this Act has been
committed by a company and it is proved that the offence has been committed with the consent or
connivance of, or is attributable to, any neglect on the part of, any director, manager, secretary or other
officer of the company, such director, manager, secretary or other officer shall be deemed to be guilty of
that offence and shall be liable to be proceeded against and punished accordingly.
Explanation.—For the purposes of this section,—
(a) “company” means any body corporate and includes a firm or other association of individuals;
and
(b) “director” , in relation to a firm, means a partner in the firm.