(1) After examining the claims, the Commissioner shall fix a certain date or before which very claimant shall file the proof of his claim or be excluded from the benefit of disbursements made by the Commissioner.
(2) Not less than fourteen days notice of the date so axed shall be give by advertisement in one issue of the newspaper in the English 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 Company an opportunity of refuting the claim and after giving the claimant 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 place at which he will hold his sittings and shall, for the purpose of making an investigation under this Act, have the same powers as are vested in a civil court under the code of Civil Procedure, 1908, while trying a suit in respect of the following matter, namely : —
(a) the sumoning 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;
(d) the issuing of any commission for the examination of witnesses.
45 of 1860 2 of 1974
(6) Any investigation before the Commissioner shall be deemed to be a judicial proceeding within the meaning of section 193 and 228 of the Indian Penal Code and the Commissioner shall be deemed to be a civil court for the purposes of section 345 and Chapter XXVI of the code of Criminal Procedure 1973.
(7) A claimant, who is dissatisfied with the de isbn 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 Company is situated.
Disbursement of money by the Commissioner to claimants