Section 18 of the Bonded Labour System (Abolition) Act, 1976 – Punishment for extracting bonded labour under the bonded labour system

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Section 18: Punishment for extracting bonded labour under the bonded labour system

Whoever enforces, after the commencement of this Act, any custom, tradition, contract, agreement or other instrument, by virtue of which any person or any member of the family of such person or any dependant of such person is required to render any service under the bonded labour system shall be punishable with imprisonment for a term which may extend to three years and also with fine which may extend to two thousand rupees; and, out of the fine, if recovered, payment shall be made to the bonded labourer at the rate of rupees five for each day for which the bonded labour was extracted from him.

Source: official text of The Bonded Labour System (Abolition) Act, 1976 as published on India Code (PDF). All sections of the Bonded Labour System (Abolition) Act, 1976.