Commissions of Inquiry: Appointment, Powers and Procedure

In one line

A commission has the powers of a civil court as of right, further powers of search and seizure if the Government notifies them, and must hear anybody whose conduct it examines or whose reputation may be damaged.

In the wording a student can write in an exam: section 4 gives every Commission the powers of a civil court in respect of summoning and enforcing attendance from any part of India and examining on oath, requiring discovery and production of documents, receiving evidence on affidavits, requisitioning public records and issuing commissions; section 5 confers additional powers where the Government so notifies; and section 8B requires the Commission to give a reasonable opportunity of being heard to any person into whose conduct it proposes to inquire or whose reputation is likely to be prejudicially affected.

The powers as of right

Section 4 gives every Commission, without any further notification, the powers of a civil court trying a suit under the Code of Civil Procedure 1908 in respect of:

(a) summoning and enforcing the attendance of any person from any part of India and examining him on oath;

(b) requiring the discovery and production of any document;

(c) receiving evidence on affidavits;

(d) requisitioning any public record or copy thereof from any court or office;

(e) issuing commissions for the examination of witnesses or documents;

(f) any other matter which may be prescribed.

Note the reach of clause (a). From any part of India, which is wider than the ordinary process of a civil court.

The additional powers

Section 5(1). Where the appropriate Government is of opinion, having regard to the nature of the inquiry and the other circumstances, that any of the following provisions should apply, it may by notification direct that they shall apply to that Commission.

Section 5(2). Power to require any person, subject to any privilege claimable under any law, to furnish information on points or matters which in the Commission's opinion may be useful for or relevant to the subject matter of the inquiry; and a person so required is deemed legally bound to furnish it within the meaning of the provisions of the general penal law on furnishing false information and omitting to give information.

The remaining sub-sections confer powers of entry, search and seizure, on the pattern of the Code of Criminal Procedure, and provide that the Commission shall be deemed to be a civil court for stated purposes and that its proceedings shall be deemed judicial proceedings for the purposes of the perjury provisions.

Sections 5A and 5B. The Commission may utilise the services of certain officers and investigating agencies for conducting investigation pertaining to the inquiry, and may appoint assessors.

Why the two-tier structure matters. The ordinary powers come with the appointment; the coercive powers of search and seizure come only if the Government chooses to notify them. So the effectiveness of a commission is partly in the Government's gift even after it has been appointed, which is the same observation as section 7 in the previous chapter.