Section 23:
Admission or rejection of claims.
(1) After examining the claims with reference to the priority
set out in the Second Schedule, the Commissioner shall fix a certain date on or before which every
claimant shall file the proof of his claim or be excluded from the benefit of the disbursement made by the
Commissioner.
(2) 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 the 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.
(3) Every claimant who fails to file the proof of his claim within the time specified by the
Commissioner shall be excluded from the disbursements made by the Commissioner.
(4) The Commissioner shall, after such investigation as may, in his opinion, be necessary and after
giving the owner of the textile undertaking an opportunity of refuting the claim and after giving the
claimants a reasonable opportunity of being heard, in writing, admit or reject the claim in whole or in
part.
(5) 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 may 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; and
(d) the issuing of any commission for the examination of witnesses.
(6) 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).
(7) 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 textile undertaking is situated:
Provided that where a person who is a Judge of a High Court is appointed to be the Commissioner,
such appeal shall lie to the High Court for the State in which the textile undertaking is situated, and such
appeal shall be heard and disposed of by not less than two Judges of that High Court.