The Commissions of Inquiry Act, 1952 and the Central Rules, 1972

1. Purpose

The Commissions of Inquiry Act, 1952 (60 of 1952) came into force on 1 October 1952. Its Statement of Objects and Reasons explains that commissions and committees had been appointed by executive order without power to enforce attendance of witnesses or production of documents, and that ad hoc laws had been passed for particular inquiries. A general law was needed to let the Government appoint an inquiring authority on any matter of public importance, or when the Legislature demands one, and to give it specific powers. Among well-known commissions under the Act are those into the assassination of Indira Gandhi and of Rajiv Gandhi, the Shah Commission on the Emergency, and many inquiries into communal riots and disasters.

2. Appointment: section 3

• Discretionary and mandatory. Section 3(1): save as otherwise provided in the Lokpal and Lokayuktas Act, 2013, the appropriate Government may appoint a commission if it considers it necessary, and shall do so if a resolution is passed by each House of Parliament or, as the case may be, the State Legislature.
• Subject and terms. By notification in the Official Gazette, to inquire into a definite matter of public importance and perform such functions within such time as the notification specifies.
• Appropriate Government, section 2(a): the Central Government for matters in any of the three Lists of the Seventh Schedule; a State Government for matters in the State or Concurrent List.
• No parallel inquiries. Proviso to section 3(1): while a Central commission is functioning, no State may appoint another on the same matter without Central approval; while a State commission is functioning, the Centre shall not appoint another on the same matter unless it considers the inquiry should extend to two or more States.
• Composition. One or more members, one of whom may be appointed Chairman, section 3(2); vacancies may be filled at any stage, section 3(3).
• Report. Section 3(4): the Government shall lay the report, if any, before each House of Parliament or the State Legislature, together with a memorandum of the action taken, within six months of its submission.

3. Powers

Civil court powers, section 4: summoning and enforcing attendance of any person from any part of India and examining him on oath; discovery and production of documents; evidence on affidavit; requisitioning public records from any court or office; issuing commissions for the examination of witnesses or documents; and other prescribed matters.

Additional powers, section 5, which apply only when the appropriate Government so notifies for a particular commission:

• to require any person to furnish information on relevant points, subject to any legal privilege, the person being legally bound to do so for the purposes of sections 176 and 177 of the Indian Penal Code (now the corresponding provisions of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, 2023), section 5(2);
• to enter any building and seize books of account or documents, through itself or a gazetted officer it authorises, section 5(3);
• to be deemed a civil court for offences such as refusing to answer or insulting the commission committed in its presence, and forward the case to a magistrate, section 5(4);
• its proceedings are deemed judicial proceedings for the offences of false evidence and insult to a judicial proceeding, section 5(5).

Section 5A lets the commission use officers and investigation agencies of the Central or State Government, with that Government’s concurrence, who may summon persons, require documents and requisition records, and who report to the commission, which must satisfy itself about their findings. Section 5B lets it appoint assessors with special knowledge to assist and advise it.

4. Protections and fairness

• Statements, section 6: no statement made by a person giving evidence before the commission shall subject him to, or be used against him in, any civil or criminal proceeding except a prosecution for false evidence, provided it was made in reply to a question he was required to answer or is relevant to the inquiry.
• Trade secrets, section 6A: no one is compelled to disclose a secret process of manufacture, unless the commission is expressly required to inquire into it.
• Persons likely to be affected, section 8B: where the commission considers it necessary to inquire into the conduct of a person, or thinks his reputation is likely to be prejudicially affected, it must give him a reasonable opportunity of being heard and to produce evidence.
• Cross-examination and counsel, section 8C: the Government, every section 8B person and, with permission, any other witness may cross-examine witnesses, address the commission, and be represented by a legal practitioner.
• Procedure, section 8: subject to rules, the commission regulates its own procedure, including whether to sit in public or in private. Section 8A: the inquiry continues despite a vacancy or change of membership.
• Section 9 protects action in good faith, including publication of the report. Section 10 makes members and officers public servants. Section 10A punishes, with simple imprisonment up to six months or fine, acts calculated to bring the commission or a member into disrepute, the complaint being tried directly by the High Court, with appeal to the Supreme Court.
• Section 7: the Government may notify that a commission shall cease to exist; a commission set up on a legislative resolution can be ended only after a resolution of discontinuance. Section 11: the Government may apply the Act to other inquiring authorities set up by resolution or order.

5. The Commissions of Inquiry (Central) Rules, 1972

Made under section 12 (G.S.R. 899, 13 July 1972), applying to commissions appointed by the Central Government:

• Rule 3: where the commission has three or more members, the members present may elect one to preside in the Chairman’s temporary absence.
• Rule 4: summons in duplicate, signed by the Chairman or his nominee, sealed, stating time, place and purpose; a person summoned only to produce documents may send them; service by post or as directed.
• Rule 5: the commission may sit in public or in private, but must sit in private if the Central Government so requests; it issues notices to persons who should be heard, calling for statements supported by affidavit with lists of documents, and a public notification inviting statements from persons acquainted with the subject; it records the Central Government’s evidence first, and then other relevant evidence; it may recall or add witnesses; it has civil court powers for local investigation; and it regulates its own procedure where the rules are silent.
• Rule 6: assessors advise but their advice does not bind the commission.
• Rule 7: the report, the evidence and all papers of the commission must be preserved intact and sent with the report.

6. The Supreme Court on commissions

In Shri Ram Krishna Dalmia v. Shri Justice S.R. Tendolkar, 1958 INSC 29, AIR 1958 SC 538, the Court upheld the Act and a notification appointing a commission to inquire into the affairs of certain companies. It held the Act within Parliament’s legislative competence and not violative of Article 14, and explained that a commission only inquires and reports: its findings have no force of their own, determine no rights and impose no liabilities, so it does not usurp judicial power. In State of Karnataka v. Union of India, 1977 INSC 214, (1977) 4 SCC 608, a seven-judge bench held that the Central Government could appoint a commission to inquire into allegations of corruption against the sitting Chief Minister and Ministers of Karnataka, and that this did not violate the federal structure.

7. Link with the right to information

A commission’s report is a record held by the Government and so, once laid or once the matter is complete, information under the RTI Act, subject to the exemptions. Section 3(4) was added in 1971 precisely so that Governments could not bury inconvenient reports. Whether a report not yet laid may be withheld is decided under section 8(1)(c) (privilege of the Legislature) and section 8(1)(h) (investigation), not by any general secrecy rule.

How this is examined

“Explain the provision relating to appointment and power of commission under the Commissions of Inquiry Act, 1952” (November 2021) and “salient features of the Commission of Inquiry Act” (December 2020). Write section 3 in full, then sections 4, 5, 5A and 5B, then sections 6, 8B and 8C, and finish with Dalmia. Add rule 5 of the 1972 Rules when the question mentions the Rules.