on the 3rd may, 2010 bill no  xxi of  2010 the  tour operators and travel agents (regulation) bill,  2010 a billto provide  for regulation of  tour operators and  travel agents  by  providing  for compulsory registration of these operators and agents by competent authority; and by prescribing requisite norms and infrastructure for various tour tourist related activities and for matters connected therewith or incidental theretobe it enacted by parliament in the sixty-first year of the republic of india as follows:—1  (1)  this act may be called the tour operators and travel agents (regulation)  act,2010short title, extent and commencement(2) it extends to the whole of indiadefinitions2 in this act, unless the context otherwise requires,—(a) "appropriate government" means in the case of a state, the state government and in all other cases, the central government;5(b) "competent authority" means any office or officer notified by the appropriate government under section 4;(c) "prescribed" means prescribed by rules made under this act10(d) "tour operator or tour agent" means any person including any establishment who undertakes and conducts, tours to the various parts of the country and outside or provides transport, passport and visa facilities, reservation of seats for airlines, rail, bus, steamer and ship and consultancy to tourists;(e) "tourist" means any person who undertakes any journey or visits any place in or out side india and includes a pilgrim 3  (1) with effect from such date as the central government may, by notification in the official gazette appoint, no person or establishment shall work as tour operator or tourist agent without prior registration with the competent authority15compulsory registration of tour operators and travel agents(2) any person or establishment found working as tour operator or tourist agent without registration shall be guilty of an offence under this actprocedure for registration204  (1) the appropriate government shall, by notification in the official gazette, appoint a competent authority for the purposes of registration of tour operator or tourist agents within its jurisdiction(2) any person or establishment willing to work as tour operator or tourist agent shall apply to the competent authority for the purpose of registration in such form and manner as may be prescribed25(3) any person or establishment working as tour operator or tourist agent before the commencement of this act shall apply for registration to the competent authority within a period of forty-five days from the date of commencement of this act in such form and manner as may be prescribed30(4) on receipt of an application for registration as tour operator or tourist agent the competent authority shall scrutinize the application and may call for such other information or documents from the applicant as may be prescribed(5) the competent authority shall, before registering any tour operator or tourist agent, inspect the infrastructure and facilities available with the tour operator or tourist agent to have the first hand information and ensure the compliance of the norms and standards fixed by the appropriate government in this behalf35(6) the competent authority shall, after being satisfied with the various requirements under this act, grant a registration certificate to the applicant in such manner and form as may be prescribed which shall be valid for three years40(7) the competent authority shall renew the registration of any tour operator or tourist agent only after re-inspecting the infrastructure facilities with the tour operator or tourist agent and on fulfilment of requirements and norms fixed in this behalf by the appropriate government under this act(8) the competent authority may refuse to register or the renew registration of a tour operator or tourist agent if he fails to comply with the norms and standards fixed by the appropriate government in this behalf or the competent authority finds its infrastructure insufficient for the purpose of working as tour operator or agent:45provided that in case of non-registration or non-renewal of registration of a tour operator or tourist agent, the competent authority shall record reasons in writing and communicate the same to the applicant5(9) the competent authority shall take a decision on the application filed under subsection (2) within a period of thirty days(10) the appropriate government shall, by notification in the official gazette, appoint an appeallate authority, in order to provide opportunities to the person aggrieved by the orders of the competent authority5 the appropriate government shall,—10| (                                | a   | ) fix the maximum free to be charged by the tour operator and travel agents for   ||----------------------------------|-----|-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------|| various tour related activities; |     |                                                                                   || appropriate                      |     |                                                                                   || government                       |     |                                                                                   || to prescribe                     |     |                                                                                   || norms for tour                   |     |                                                                                   || operator and                     |     |                                                                                   || travel agents                   |     |                                                                                   || (                                | b   | ) the rate at which vehicles shall be made available to tourists;                 |(c) to prescribe norms and standards for various activities;15(d) lay down norms for minimum infrastructure for starting and running touroperations;(e) prescribe such other norms as may be necessary for the purposepenalty6 whoever contravenes the provisions of this act and the rules made thereunder shall be punishable with imprisonment for a term which may extend to two years and also with fine which may extend to five lakhs rupees20offences by company7 (1) where a contravention of any of the provisions of this act or any rule, directionor order made thereunder has been committed by a company, every person who, at the time the contravention was committeed, was  in charge of, and was responsible to the company for the conduct of business of the company as well as the company, shall be guilty of the contravention and shall be liable to be proceeded against and punished accordingly:25provided that nothing contained in this sub-section shall render any such personliable to punishment if he proves that the contravention was committed without his knowledge or that he exercised all due diligence to prevent such contravention30(2) notwithstanding anything contained in sub-section (1), where a contravention ofany of the provisions of this act or of any rule direction or other made thereunder has been committed by a company and it is proved that the contravention has taken place with the consent or connivance of or is attributable to any neglect on the part of any director, manager, secretary or other officer of the company such director, manager, secretary or other officer shall also be deemed to be guilty of the contravention and shall be liable to  be proceeded against and punished accordingly35explanation:—for the purpose of this section:—(i) "company" means any body corporate and includes a firm or other associationof individuals; and(ii) "director", in relation to a firm, means a partner in the firm40power to remove difficulties8 if any difficulty arises in giving effect to the provisions of this act, the centralgovernment may, by order published in the official gazette, make such provisions, notinconsistent with the provisions of this act, as appear to it to be necessary or expedient for remvoing the difficulty:provided that no such orders shall be made after the expiry of the period of three years from the date of commencement of this act459 the provisions of this act shall have effect notwithstanding anything inconsistenttherewith contained in any other law for the time being in force on the subject and saveoverriding effect of the actaforesaid the provisions of the act shall be in addition to and not derogation of any other law for the time being in forcepower to make rules10 the central government may by notification in the official gazette make rules for carrying out the purposes of this act statement of objects and reasonsat present, there is no legislation to regulate the tourism industry, particularly the travel agencies operating in various regions of the country this sector is unorgainsed and any person can start a travel agency anywhere by setting up a small shop just with a telephone facility there is no ban on such travel agents and as a result, in some of the cases, anti social or mischievous elements sneak into this business and flourish in the name of providing travel consultancy there have been cases when the foreign tourists have been cheated and robbed of their valuables by the unscrupulous travel agents the association of domestic tour operators has held several meetings with the department to make registration of a travel agency mandatory to curb the untoward incidents and dubious practices indulged in by some travel agents with ulterior motives it becomes all the more important to check this menace of unregulated travel agencies, in view of the upcoming commonwealth grames in new delhi by suitable legislative measureshence this billmahendra mohan memorandum regarding delegated legislationclause 10 of the bill empowers the central government to make rules for carring out the purposes of this bill the rules will relate to matters of details onlythe delegation of legislative power is of a normal character———— a billto provide for regulation of tour operators and travel agents by providing for compulsoryregistration of these operators and agents by competent authority; and by prescribingrequisite norms and infrastructure for various tour/tourist related activities and formatters connected therewith  and incidental thereto————(shri mahendra mohan, mp)gmgipmrnd—2362rs(s4)—03-05-2010