(1)A Gram Panchayat may by summons send for any person to appear and give evidence or cause the production of any document,-(a)no person who is exempt from personal appearance in court under sub-section (1) of section 133 of the Code of Civil Procedure, 1908 shall be required to appear in person before a Gram Panchayat in a civil suit;(b)a Gram Panchayat may refuse to summon a witness or to enforce a summons already issued against a witness, when in its opinion the attendance of the witnesses cannot be procured without an amount of delay, expense or inconvenience which in the circumstances would be unreasonable;(c)a Gram Panchayat shall not require any person living beyond its jurisdiction to give evidence or to produce a document unless such a sum of money be paid to him as appears to the Gram Panchayat to be sufficient to defray his reasonable expenses;(d)no woman shall be compelled to appear as a witness in person before a Gram Panchayat, she may, however, be examined on commission in the manner prescribed; and(e)if a document is produced in obedience to a summons issued under this section, the Gram Panchayat shall cause the document to be copied, mark the copy after comparing with the original to be a true copy and return the original document to the person producing the same.(2)If any person, whom the Gram Panchayat summons by written order to appear or give evidence or to produce any document before it, willfully fails to obey such summons, the Gram Panchayat may take cognizance of such disobedience and after giving such person, an opportunity to explain may, on conviction sentence him to a fine not exceeding twenty-five rupees.
