(1)Subject to the provisions of section 85, a Nyaya Panchayat may, by summons, send for any person to appear and give evidence or to produce or cause the production of any document:Provided that 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 Nyaya Panchayat.(2)A Nyaya Panchayat shall refuse to summon a witness or to enforce a summons already issued against a witness, where, in the opinion of the Nyaya Panchayat, the attendance of the witness cannot be procured without an amount of delay, expense or inconvenience which, under the circumstances of the case, would be unreasonable.(3)A Nyaya Panchayat shall not require any person living outside the limits of the Gram Panchayat concerned to give evidence, unless such sum of money as may appear to the Nyaya Panchayat to be sufficient to defray the travelling and other expenses of such person and for one day's attendance is deposited in the Nyaya Panchayat by the party who cites such person as his witness.(4)If any person whom a Nyaya Panchayat summons by written order to appear or give evidence, or to produce any document before it fails, without lawful excuse, to obey such summons and thereby commits an offence, the Nyaya Panchayat, may take cognizance of such offence and may sentence the person convicted of such offence to a fine not exceeding twenty-five rupees.
