10Claims to be made to the Commissioner

(1) Every concession holder, having a claim for the payment of the amount referred to in section 6, shall prefer such claim before the Commissioner within thirty days from the specified date:

Provided that if the Commissioner is satisfied that the claimant was prevented by sufficient cause from preferring the claim within the said period of thirty days, he may entertain the claim within a further period of thirty days, but not thereafter.

(2) The Commissioner shall fix a certain date on or before which every claimant shall file the proof of his claim.

(3) Not less than fourteen days notice of the date so fixed shall be given by advertisement in one issue of the daily newspaper in the English language and one issue of any daily newspaper in the regional language as the Commissioner may consider suitable, and every such notice shall call upon the claimant to file the proof of his claim with the Commissioner within the time specified in the advertisement.

(4) Every claimant, who fails to file the proof of his claim within the time specified by the Commissioner, shall be excluded from the disbursement made by the Commissioner.

(5) The Commissioner shall, after such investigation as may, in his opinion, be necessary and after giving the concession holder, a reasonable opportunity of being heard, by order in writing admit or reject the claim in whole or in part.

(6) The Commissioner shall have the power to regulate his own procedure in all matters arising out of the discharge of his functions, including the place or places at which he will hold his sittings and shall, for the purpose of making any investigation under this Act, have the same powers as are vested in a civil court under the Code of Civil Procedure, 1908 (5 of 1908), while trying a suit in respect of the following matters, namely:--

(a) the summoning and enforcing the attendance of any witness and examining him on oath;

(b) the discovery and production of any document or other material object producible as evidence;

(c) the reception of evidence on affidavits;

(d) the issuing of any commission for the examination of any witnesses.

(7) Any investigation before the Commissioner shall be deemed to be a judicial proceeding within the meaning of sections 193 and 228 of the Indian Penal Code (45 of 1860) and the Commissioner shall be deemed to be a civil court for the purposes of section 195 and Chapter XXVI of the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973 (2 of 1974).

(8) A claimant, who is dissatisfied with the decision of the Commissioner, may prefer an appeal against the decision to the principal civil court of original jurisdiction within the local limits of whose jurisdiction the relevant mine is situated.