57Power 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 ¹[qualifications (including age) of agents and 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 mineor mines to be under a manager not having the prescribed qualifications ;

²[(h) for providing for inquiries to be made under this Act, including any inquiry relating to misconduct or incompetence on the part of any person holding a certificate under this Act and for the suspension or cancellation of any such certificate and for providing, wherever necessary, that the person appointed to hold an inquiry shall have all the powers of a civil court under the Code of Civil Procedure, 1908 (5 of 1908), for the purpose of enforcing the attendance of witnesses and compelling the production of documents and material objects;]

(i) for regulating, subject to the provisions of the Indian Explosives Act, 1884 (4 of 1884), and of any rules made thereunder, the storage, conveyance and use of explosives;

³[(j) for prohibiting, restricting or regulating the employment of ⁴*** women in mines or in any class of mines or onparticular kinds of labour which are attended by danger to the life, safety or health of such persons and for limiting the weight of any single load that may be carried by any such person;]

(k) for providing for the safety of the persons employed in a mine, their means of entrance thereinto and exit therefrom, the number of shafts or outlets to be furnished, and the fencing of shafts, pits, outlets, pathways and subsidences;

(1) for prohibiting the employment in a mine 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;

⁵[(m) for providing for the safety of the roads and working places in mines, including the siting, maintenance and extraction or reduction of pillars or blocks of minerals 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 in the vicinityof the sea or any lake or river or any other body of surface water, whether natural or artificial, or of any public road or building, and for requiring due precaution to be taken against the irruption or inrush of water or other liquid matter 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;

⁶[(p) for regulating, subject to the provisions of the Indian Electricity Act, 1910 (9 of 1910), and ofany rules made thereunder, the generation, storage, transformation, transmission and use of electricity in mines and for providing for the care and the regulation of the use of all electrical apparatus and electrical cables in mines and of all other machinery and plant therein;]

(q) ⁷[for regulating the use of machinery in mines, for providing for the safety of persons employed on or near such machinery and 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 ⁸[of inflammable gas or dust] 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 ⁸[workings] or to result in or to aggravate the collapse of ⁸[workings] or irruptions of water or ignitions in mines;

(t) ⁹[for prescribing under clause (g) of sub-section (1) of section 23, the types of accidents and 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;

¹⁰(u) ¹¹[for requiring owners, agents and managers of mines to have fixed boundaries for the mines, for prescribing the plans and sections and field notes connected therewith to be kept by them] and the manner and places in which such plans, sections and field notes are to be kept for purposes of record and for the submission of copies thereof to the Chief Inspector; and for requiring the making of fresh surveys and plans bythem, and in the event of non-compliance, for having the survey made and plans prepared through any other agency and for the recovery of expenses thereof in the same manner as an arrear of land revenue;]

(v) for regulating the procedure on the occurrence of accidents or accidental explosions or ignitions in or about mines ¹²[for dealing effectively with the situation];

(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 16;

(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 ¹³[forty-five metres] of any railway subject to the provisions of the Indian Railways Act, 1890 (9 of 1890), or of any ¹⁴[public roads or other works, as the case may be, which are maintained by the Government or any local authority];

(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 (9 of 1890);

¹⁵[(yy) for requiring protective works to be constructed by the owner, agent or manager of a mine before the mine is closed, and in the event of non-compliance, for getting such works executed by any other agency and for recovering the expenses thereof from such owner in the same manner as an arrear of land revenue;]

(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.