Presumption about accuracy of balance-sheet and profit and loss account of corporations and companies.

23. (1) Where, during the course of proceedings before any arbitrator or Tribunal under the Industrial Disputes Act, 1947 (14 of 1947), or under any corresponding law relating to investigation and settlement of industrial dis­putes in force in a State (hereinafter in this section and in sections 24 and 25 referred to as the "said authority") to which any dispute of the nature specified in section 22 has been referred, the balance-sheet and the profit and loss account of an employer, being a corporation or a company (other than a banking company), duly audited by the Comptroller and Auditor-General of India or by auditors duly qualified to act as auditors of companies under sub-section (1) of section 226 of the Companies Act, 1956 (1 of 1956), are produced before it, then, the said authority may presume the statements and particulars contained in such balance-sheet and profit and loss account to be accurate and it shall not be necessary for the corporation or the company to prove the accuracy of such statements and particulars by the filing of an affidavit or by any other mode:

Provided that where the said authority is satisfied that the statements and particulars contained in the balance-sheet or the profit and loss account of the corporation or the company are not accurate, it may take such steps as it thinks necessary to find out the accuracy of such statements and particulars.

(2) When an application is made to the said authority by any trade union being a party to the dispute or where there is no trade union, by the employees being a party to the dispute, requiring any clarification relating to any item in the balance-sheet or the profit and loss account, it may, after satisfying itself that such clarification is necessary, by order, direct the corporation or, as the case may be, the company, to furnish to the trade union or the employees such clarification within such time as may be specified in the direction and the corporation or, as the case may be, the company, shall comply with such direction.