Section 39 — Time limit for payment of bonus.

39(1)

All amounts payable to an employee by way of bonus under this Code shall be paid by crediting it in the bank account of the employee by his employer within a period of eight months from the close of the accounting year: Provided that the appropriate Government or such authority as the appropriate Government may specify in this behalf may, upon an application made to it by the employer and for sufficient reasons, by order, extend the said period of eight months to such further period or periods as it thinks fit; so, however, that the total period so extended shall not in any case exceed two years.