The UTTAR PRADESH DEPARTMENTAL INQUIRIES (ENFORCEMENT OF ATTENDANCE OF WITNESSES AND PRODUCTION OF DOCUMENTS) ACT, 1976

580 
 THE UTTAR PRADESH DEPARTMENTAL INQUIRIES  
(ENFORCEMENT OF ATTENDANCE OF WITNESSES AND 
PRODUCTION OF DOCUMENTS) ACT, 19761 
(U. P. Act No. IV of 1976) 
 [Passed in Hindi by the Uttar Pradesh Legislative Council on 
March 31, 1976 and by the Uttar Pradesh Legislative Assembly on 
April 2, 1976. 
Received the assent of the Governor on April 12, 1976 under 
Article 200 of the Constitution of India and was published in the 
Uttar Pradesh Gazette, Extraordinary, dated April 13, 1976.] 
 AN 
ACT 
 to provide for the enforcement of attendance of witnesses and 
production of documents in certain departmental inquiries and for 
matters connected therewith or incidental thereto.   
IT is hereby enacted in the Twenty-seventh Year of the 
Republic of India as follows :— 
Short title, 
extent and 
commencement 
1. (1) This Act may be called the Uttar Pradesh Departmental 
Inquiries (Enforcement of Attendance of Witnesses and Production of 
Documents) Act, 1976. 
(2) It extends to the whole of Uttar Pradesh. 
(3) It shall be deemed to have come into force on September 
17, 1975.  
Departmental 
inquiries to 
which the Act 
shall apply 
2. The provisions of this Act shall apply to every departmental 
inquiry made in relation to — 
(a) persons who are members of any civil service of the State 
or who hold any civil post under the State ; 
(b) persons who are in the service of or hold any post under — 
 
 
Act I of 1956 
(i) any local authority ; 
(ii) any Board or Corporation (not being a company within the 
meaning of the Companies Act, 1956) owned or controlled by the 
State Government ;  
 (iii) any Government Company, within the meaning of section 
617 of the Companies Act, 1956, in which not less than fifty percent 
of the paid-up share capital is held by the State Government, or any 
company which is a subsidiary of such Government Company ;  
Act XXI of 
1860 (iv) any society registered under the Societies Registration Act, 
1860, the governing body whereof consists, under rules or 
regulations of the society, wholly of public officers, or nominees of the 
State Government, or both ; 
—————————————————————————————————————————— 
1. For Statement of Objects and Reasons, see Uttar Pradesh Gazette, Extraordinary, dated March 31, 1976. 
[The Uttar Pradesh Departmental Inquiries (Enforcement of Attendance of Witnesses and  
Production of Documents) Act, 1976] 
582 
  (c) persons who have ceased to be members of a service or 
holders of a post referred to in clause (a) or clause (b), in relation to 
their acts or omissions while they were members of such service or 
holders of such post.   
Definitions  3. For the purposes of this Act — 
(a) “departmental inquiry” means an inquiry held under and in 
accordance with — 
(i) any law made by the State Legislature or any rule made 
thereunder, or 
 
 
 
 
(ii) any rule made under the proviso to Article 309, or continued 
under Article 313 of the Constitution, into any charges against any 
person referred to in section 2 ;  
 (b) “inquiring authority” means any officer or authority who is 
empowered by or under any law or rule for the time being in force to 
hold a departmental inquiry, and includes an officer or authority to 
whom the power to hold such inquiry is delegated by the competent 
authority ;   
 (c) “charges” include any allegation in respect of which 
disciplinary action is proposed to be taken against a person while he is 
in service or while he holds a post, or where he has ceased to be in 
service or to hold a post, any misconduct or negligence on account of 
which action by way of withholding or withdrawing pension or any part 
of it or of recovery from pension of any pecuniary loss caused to the 
employer is proposed to be taken against him.  
Power of authorized inquiring authority to enforce attendance of witnesses and production of document 
 
Act V of 1908 
4. (1) Every inquiring authority shall have the same powers as 
are vested in a civil court under the Code of Civil Procedure, 1908, 
while trying a suit, in respect of the following matters, namely :— 
 
 
 
(a) the summoning and enforcing the attendance of any 
witness and examining him on oath ; 
(b) requiring the discovery and production of any 
document or other material which is producible as evidence ; 
 
Act I of 1872 
(c) subject to any claim of privilege (in respect of which 
sections 123 and 124 of the Indian Evidence Act, 1872 shall 
mutatis mutandis apply but section 162 thereof shall not 
apply), the requisitioning of any public record from any court 
or office.   
 
 
Act XXXV-III 
of 1959 
 
Act V of 1970 
(2) Notwithstanding anything contained in sub-section (1), the 
authorized inquiring authority shall not compel the Reserve Bank of 
India, the State Bank of India, any subsidiary bank as defined in 
clause (k) of section 2 of the State bank of India (Subsidiary Banks) 
Act, 1959, or any corresponding new Bank constituted under section 3 
of the Banking Companies (Acquisition and Transfer of undertakings) 
Act, 1970 :— 
 (a) to produce any books of account or other documents 
which the Reserve Bank of India, the State Bank of India, the 
subsidiary bank or the corresponding new bank claims to be of 
a confidential nature, or 
The Uttar Pradesh Departmental Inquiries (Enforcement of Attendance of Witnesses and  
Production of Documents) Act, 1976 
584 
 (b) to make any such books or documents a part of the 
record of the proceedings of the departmental inquiry, or 
(c) to give inspection of any such books or documents, if 
produced to any party before it or to any other person.   
 (3) Any process issued by an inquiring authority for the 
attendance of any witness or for the production of  any document may 
be served and executed either direct (by post or by messenger) or 
through the District Judge within the local limits of whose jurisdiction 
the witness or other person on whom the process is to be served or 
executed, voluntarily resides or carries on business or personally 
works for gain.  
 (4) Where a process is served and executed through the District 
Judge in accordance with sub-section (3), it shall, for the purposes of 
taking any action for the disobedience thereof, be deemed to be a 
process issued by the Court of the District Judge.   
 
 
 
 
Act V of 1908 
(5) Where a process is issued by a tribunal constituted under 
the Uttar Pradesh Disciplinary Proceedings (Administrative Tribunal) 
Rules, 1947, and is served and executed without its being routed 
through the District Judge, the tribunal shall, for the purposes of 
taking any action for the disobedience of any such process, have the 
same powers as are vested in a civil court under rules 10 to 18 of order 
16 in the First Schedule to the Code of Civil Procedure, 1908. 
 
Act 2 of 1974 
(6) Every inquiring authority making any departmental inquiry 
under this Act shall be deemed to be a civil court for the purposes of 
sections 345 and 346 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973. 
Territorial 
limits in 
which powers 
specified in 
section 4 
may be 
exercised 
5. For the purposes of exercising the powers specified in section 
4, the territorial jurisdiction of every authorized inquiring authority 
shall extend to the limits of the territory to which this Act extends. 
Power to 
make rules 6. The State Government may, by notification, make rules for 
the purpose of giving effect to the provisions of this Act. 
Repeal and 
savings  
 
U. P. Act XXI 
of 1953 
 
U. P. 
Ordinance 
no. 1 of 1976 
7. (1) The Uttar Pradesh Disciplinary Proceedings (Summoning 
of Witnesses and Production of Documents) Act, 1953, is repealed with 
effect from September 17, 1975. 
(2) The Uttar Pradesh Departmental Inquiries (Enforcement of 
Attendance of Witnesses and Production of Documents) Ordinance, 
1976 is hereby repealed.  
 (3) Notwithstanding such repeal or the repeal of the Uttar 
Pradesh Departmental Inquiries (Enforcement of Attendance of 
Witnesses and Production of Documents) Ordinance, 1975, by the 
aforesaid Ordinance of 1976, anything done or any action taken under 
the said Ordinances shall be deemed to have been done or taken under 
the corresponding provisions of this Act, as if this Act was in force on 
all material dates.   

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