Departmental Inquiry.

Departmental Inquiry:

Important Aspects related to Listed Documents and Defence Documents

Document is the term that is used to indicate written evidence produced/ intended to be used during the inquiry. To constitute a document two conditions must be satisfied:

(a)  It must be in writing or transmitted on an object by inscription or any other manner as distinguished from oral statements. &

(b)  It is produced during inquiry as a piece of evidence.

However statements made by witnesses in Preliminary inquiry though in writing do not constitute ‘documents’ because these cannot be used as evidence during the inquiry.

1.       The Listed Documents (PD-1...) are the documents mentioned in the charge sheet or Annexure III to it as the documents by which the Article of Charges are proposed to be sustained. These documents which are proposed to be relied upon to prove the charges and facts stated in the allegations should be drawn up at the time of framing the charges.

2.      The charged employee (CE) has an unrestricted and complete right of inspection of these documents.

3.      In addition to the documents listed along with the charge sheet the delinquent employee may desire to inspect additional documents (Defence documents- DD-1...). These are the documents which though not relied upon by the prosecution; nevertheless CE feels them to be essential for his effective defence.

4.      CE should submit a written request to the I.O indicating :

(a)   Full particulars of the documents, as known  to him

(b)              Designation and address of the authority having their custody &

(c)              Their relevance to his case. The relevance must be given with adequate specificity.

5.      A defence document (DD) may be denied where (i) it is not relevant to the case (question of relevancy is decided by the I.O. (ii) though relevant it is not in the public interest to produce it during the inquiry. (Power to refuse access to official records is of the Head of the Department).

6.      It is the duty of the inquiry officer (IO) himself to requisition the documents from the authorities concerned. It shall be wrong to shift this burden to the presenting officer (PO). The I.O. on receipt of the notice for the discovery or production of documents, forward the same or copies thereof to the authority in whose possession the documents are kept.

7.      The letter should always be addressed to the Head of the Department (HOD) concerned even though the documents may actually be in possession of some subordinate officer. The reason is that, in law, an official document is always in the custody of the HOD.

8.     The statutory rules require that if the authority having the custody or possession of the requisitioned document decides to withhold them from inquiry in the public interest or security of the state, it shall record its reasons in writing (because refusal is subject to scrutiny by the appellate authorities and courts.)

9.      The charged officer is asked to furnish a list of additional documents required by him for this defence only after he has completed inspection of the listed documents and received copies of the statement made by the prosecution witness during the preliminary inquiry or investigation.

10.  Earlier statements made by the Prosecution Witnesses (PW-1...) during investigation by the CBI/Police or in the Fact Finding inquiry by a departmental officer should be supplied to the charged employee before the Regular Hearing begins (in which those witnesses are examined ). Such statements should be supplied in full and not only synopsis.

11.   The statement recorded (in preliminary inquiry) does not constitute legal evidence. The sole purpose of giving copies to the charged officer is to facilitate the cross-examination of those witnesses. If the witness is not produced during the enquiry the statement becomes useless and cannot be taken on record.

12.  The copies of the earlier statements of the witnesses should be supplied well in time before those witnesses are examined. The necessity of these documents is that they are to be used in the cross examination of the witnesses (PW)

13.  Reports of Preliminary (Fact Finding enquiry) or Police/ACB/CBI Report are usually confidential and intended only to satisfy the competent authority whether further action in the nature of Regular Departmental Inquiry (RDI) or any other action is called for.

14.  These reports are not made use of or considered in the inquiry. Ordinarily, even a reference as to what is contained in these reports is not made in the Statement of Allegations. Therefore it is not necessary to give access to these reports to the charged employee.

15.   However if these reports are relied upon during the course of inquiry for proving the charge, it becomes essential to supply a copy thereof to the CE.

16.  If the management seeks to rely on any documents in proof of the charge, the principle of natural justice require that such copies of those documents need to be supplied to the delinquent. If the documents are voluminous and cannot be supplied to him an opportunity has got to be given to him for inspection of the documents. It would be open to the delinquent to obtain appropriate extracts at his own expense.