22A. General provision for punishment of other offences.—Any employer who contravenes any provision of this Act or of any rule or order made thereunder shall, if no other penalty is provided for such contravention by this Act, be punishable with fine which may extend to five hundred rupees. Kerala Substitution of Section 22A.—For section 22A of the principal Act, the following section shall be substituted, namely:— “22A. General Provision for punishment of other offences.—

(1) Whoever contravenes the provisions of this Act or the rules made thereunder shall be punishable with fine which may extend to two lakh rupees and in the case of a continuing contravention, with an additional fine which may extend to two thousand rupees for every day during which such contravention continues:

(2) If any person who has been convicted of any offence punishable under sub-section

(1) is again guilty of an offence involving a contravention or failure of compliance of the same provision, he shall be punishable on a subsequent conviction with fine which shall not be less than one lakh rupees but which may extend to five lakh rupees.

(3) Notwithstanding anything contained in sub-section

(2) of section 29 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973 (Central Act 2 of 1974), it shall be lawful for the Magistrate to impose a fine for an amount exceeding ten thousand rupees.”. [Vide Kerala Act 23 of 2017, sec. 4]. Karnataka Amendment of section 22A.—In section 22A of the Principal Act, for the words “five hundred rupees” the words “ten thousand rupees” shall be substituted. [Vide Karnataka Act 40 of 2017, sec. 4].