Chapter III Miscellaneous

(1) Any person aggrieved by any order, made by the Appropriate Authority under any of the provisions of this Act may, within a period of thirty days from the date of receipt of the order by him, appeal to the Deputy Commissioner, if the order is made by any officer other than the Deputy Commissioner and to such authority, as may be prescribed, if the order is made by the Deputy Commissioner. On receipt of such appeal, the Appellate Authority shall, after giving a reasonable opportunity to the appellant of being heard, pass such order as it may think fit. Every order made by the Appellate Authority in such appeal shall be final and shall not be called in question in any court.

(2) Before giving any decision in such appeal the appellate authority shall obtain the views of such officer of the Department of Mines and Geology as may be prescribed, and shall take such views into consideration.

(3) Save as otherwise provided in sub-section (1), every order made and every direction issued under this Act shall be final and shall not be called in question in any court.

(1) No suit, prosecution or other legal proceeding shall lie against any public servant or person appointed or authorised under this Act in respect of anything done or intended to be done in good faith under this Act or in pursuance of any order made or directions issued under this Act.

(2) No suit, prosecution or other legal proceeding shall lie against the Government or any Officer of the Government for any damage caused or likely be caused by anything done or intended to be done in good faith under this Act or in pursuance of any order made or direction issued under this Act.

(1) Whoever contravenes any of the provisions of this Act or obstructs any person in the discharge of his duties under this Act or contravenes any order or violates any rule made under this Act shall, on conviction, be punished with imprisonment which shall not be less than one month but which may extend to six months or with fine which shall not be less than one thousand rupees but may extend to five thousand rupees or with both. (2) Whoever, without proper authority, damages, alters or obstructs any part of the public water supply system shall on conviction, be punished with imprisonment which shall not be less than two months but which may extend to one year or with fine which shall not be less than two thousand rupees but may extend to five thousand rupees or with both. (3) In the case of a continuing offence, the offender shall be punished with an additional fine which may extend to rupees hundred for every day during which offence continues after the conviction.

(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: Provided that nothing contained in this sub-section shall render any such person liable to any punishment provided in this Act if he proves that the offence was committed without his knowledge or that he exercised all due diligence to prevent the commission of such offence. (2) Notwithstanding anything contained in sub-section(1) where an 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 also 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 a body corporate, and includes a firm or other association of individuals; and (b) “director” in relation to a firm means partner in the firm.

The provisions of the Act and the order issued or made thereunder shall have effect notwithstanding anything to the contrary contained in any other law for the time being in force.

(1) Subject to such rules as may be prescribed, service of any notice or other document under this Act or any Order made thereunder, on any person to whom it is by name addressed shall be effected.-

(i) by giving or tendering the said notice or document or a copy of the said order to such person; or

(ii) if such person is not found, by leaving such notice or document or copy of the order at his last known place of residence or business or by giving or tendering the same to some adult member or servant of his family; or

(iii) by sending such notice or document or the copy of the order to such person by registered post; or

(iv) by affixing such notice or document or copy of the order on some conspicuous part of his house, if any in which such person is known to have last resided or carried on business or personally worked for gain.

(2) No such notice shall be deemed to be void on account of any defect of form.

(1) The Government may by notification and after previous publication, make rules to carry out the purposes of this Act.

(2) In particular and without prejudice to the generality of the foregoing power, such rules may provide, for,- (a) the form of application under sub-section (2) of section 3 and the fees to be paid in respect of such application; (b) the conditions and restrictions under clause (b) of sub-section (4) of section 3; (c) the form of application under sub-section(2) of section 7 and the fees to be paid for such application; (d) the restrictions and conditions under clause (b) of sub-section (4) of section 7; (e) the manner of applying for payment of compensation under section 12 and payment of fees for applying for payment of compensation; (f) any other matter for which rules have to be made or are necessary.

(3) Every rule made under this Act shall be laid, as soon as may be, after it is made, before each House of the State Legislature while it is in session, for a total period of thirty days, which may be comprised in one session or in two or more successive sessions, and if before the expiry of the session in which it is so laid or the session or sessions immediately following, both Houses agree in making any modification in the rule or both Houses agree that the rule should not be made the rule shall thereafter have effect only in such modified form or be of no effect, as the case may be; so, however, that any modification or annulment shall be without prejudice to the validity of anything previously done under that rule.

If any difficulty arises in giving effect to the provisions of this Act, the Government may, as occasion arises, by order, do anything, which appears to it to be necessary or expedient to remove the difficulty:

Provided that no such order shall made after the expiry of the period of two years from the date of commencement of this Act.