(1) The State Government may appoint qualified medical practitioners to be certifying surgeons for the purposes of this Act within such local limits or for such factory or class or description of factories as it may assign to them respectively.
     (2) A certifying surgeon may, with the approval of the State Government, authorise any qualified medical practitioner to exercise any of his powers under this Act for such period as the certifying surgeon may specify and subject to such conditions as the State Government may think fit to impose, and references in this Act to a certifying surgeon shall be deemed to include references to any qualified medical practitioner when so authorised.
     (3) No person shall be appointed to be, or authorised to exercise the powers of, a certifying surgeon, or having been so appointed or authorised, continue to exercise such powers, who is or becomes the occupier of a factory or is or becomes directly or indirectly interested therein or in any process or business carried on therein on in any patent or machinery connected therewith or is otherwise in the employ of the factory:
     ¹[Provided that the State Government may, by order in writing and subject to such conditions as may be specified in the order, exempt any person or class of persons from the provisions of this sub-section in respect of any factory or class or description of factories.]
     (4) The certifying surgeon shall carry out such duties as may be prescribed in connection with--
         (a) the examination and certification of young persons under this Act;
         (b) the examination of persons engaged in factories in such dangerous occupations or processes as may be prescribed;
         (c) the exercising of such medical supervision as may be prescribed for any factory or class or description of factories where--
             (i) cases of illness have occurred which it is reasonable to believe are due to the nature of the manufacturing process carried on, or other conditions of work prevailing, therein;
             (ii) by reason of any change in the manufacturing process carried on or in the substances used therein or by reason of the adoption of any new manufacturing process or of any new substance for use in a manufacturing process, there is a likelihood of injury to the health of workers employed in that manufacturing process;
             (iii) young persons are, or are about to be, employed in any work which is likely to cause injury to their health.
     Explanation.--In this section "qualified medical practitioner" means a person holding a qualification granted by an authority specified in the Schedule to the Indian Medical Degrees Act, 1916 (7 of 1916), or in the Schedules to the Indian Medical Council Act, 1933 (27 of 1933)² .