Report No. 24
The Commissions of Inquiry Act, 1952
1. Reference to Law Commission.-
The circumstances in which the Commissions of Inquiry Act, 1952, was referred to the Law Commission may be briefly stated. Section 5(2) of the Act authorises a commission of inquiry to require any person to furnish information useful for, or relevant to, the matters under inquiry. No penalty is provided in the Act for disobedience to such a requisition, and the Press Commission, constituted under the Act, appears to have experienced some difficulty in collecting the required information. Government had, therefore, referred this matter to us for examination.
Taking into account the importance of the Act and the need for a proper system of inquiries, we have, instead of confining ourselves to the specific points referred to us, preferred to undertake a comprehensive examination of the entire Act in the light of the working of the Act during the last ten years, the practice in other countries in relation to inquiries, and the vast thought-provoking literature on the subject.
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