(1)

In this Act, unless the context otherwise requires,—

(a) ***

(b) “adult” means a person who has completed his eighteenth year;

(c) “agent”, when used in relation to a mine, means every person, whether appointed as such or not, who, acting or purporting to act on behalf of the owner, takes part in the management, control, supervision or direction of the mine or of any part thereof;

(d) “Chief Inspector” means the Chief Inspector of Mines appointed under this Act;

(e) “Committee” means a committee constituted under section 12;

(f) “day” means a period of twenty-four hours beginning at midnight;

(g) “district magistrate” means, in a presidency-town, the person appointed by the Central Government to perform the duties of a district magistrate under this Act in that town;

(h) a person is paid to be “employed” in a mine who works as the manager or who works under appointment by the owner, agent or manager of the mine or with the knowledge of the manager, whether for wages or not—

(i) “Inspector” means an Inspector of Mines appointed under this Act, and includes a district magistrate when exercising any power or performing any duty of an Inspector which he is empowered by this Act to exercise or perform;

(j) “mine” means any excavation where any operation for the purpose of searching for or obtaining minerals has been or is being carried on and includes—

(2)

A person working or employed in or in connection with a mine is said to be working or employed—

(a) “below ground” if he is working or employed—

(b) “above ground” if he is working in an open cast working or in any other manner not specified in clause (a).