Section 153 in The Railway Protection Force Rules, 1987
153. Procedure for imposing major punishments.
-153.1Without prejudice to the provisions of the Public Servants Inquires act, 1850,no order of dismissal, removal, compulsory retirement or reduction in ranks shall bepassed on any enrolled member of the Force (save as mentioned in rule 161 ) withoutholding an inquiry, as far as may be in the manner provided hereinafter, in which hehas been informed in writing of the grounds on which it is proposed to take action,and has been afforded a reasonable opportunity of defending himself.153.2.1. Whenever the disciplinary authority is of the opinion that there are groundsfor inquiring into the truth of any imputation of misconduct or misbehaviour againstan enrolled member of the Force, it may itself inquire into or appoint an Inquiry Officer higher in rank to the enrolled member charged but not below the rank of Inspector, or institute a Court of Inquiry to inquire in to the truth thereof.153.2.2. Where the disciplinary authority itself holds the inquiry, any reference to the Inquiry Officer in these rules shall be construed as reference to the disciplinaryauthority.153.3On receipt of complaint or otherwise, the disciplinary authority on goingthrough the facts alleged or brought out shall decide whether it is a case for majorpunishment. No attempt shall be made to convert cases punishable under section16 A or section 17 into disciplinary cases nor divert cases in respect of which majorpunishments are imposable to the category of cases where minor or pettypunishments are imposable.153.4Where it is proposed to hold an inquiry against an enrolled member of the Force under this rule, the disciplinary authority may order that the enrolled membershall not e transferred to any other place nor given leave without its writtenpermission till the conclusion of the disciplinary proceedings, and the disciplinaryauthority shall draw up or cause to be drawn up -(a)the substance of the imputations of misconduct or misbehaviour into definiteand distinct articles of charge;(b)a statement of the imputations of misconduct or misbehaviour in support oreach article or charge which shall contain,-(i)a statement of all relevant facts including any admission or confessionmade by the enrolled member of the Force;(ii)a list of document by which and a list of witness by whom the articles ofcharge are proposed to be sustained.153.5The disciplinary authority shall to be delivered to the delinquent member, atleast seventy-two hours before the commencement of the inquiry, a copy of thearticles of charge, the statement of imputations of misconduct or msbehaviour and alist of documents and witness by which each article of charge is proposed to besustained and fix a date when the inquiry is to commence; subsequent dates beingfixed by the Inquiry Officer.153.6Where the enrolled member charged has absconded or where it is not possibleto serve the documents on him in person or where he deliberately evades service, theprocedure laid down in sections 62, 64, and 69 of the Code of Criminal Procedure,1973 shall be adopted by the Inquiry Officer for service of such documents and thesame shall be deemed to be a conclusive proof of service.153.7For securing the presence of private prosecution witness, the Inquiry Officermay allow free travel passes according to their status in accordance with extant Railway Rules.153.8The enrolled member charged shall to be in a legal practitioner at theproceedings but he may be allowed to take the assistance of any other member of the Force(hereinafter referred to as :friend Where in the opinion of the Inquiry Officernay, at the request of the party charged, put his defence properly. Such "friend" mustbe a serving member of the Force of or below the rank or Sub-Inspector for the timebeing posted in the same division or the battalion where the proceeding are pendingand not acting as a "friend" in any other proceedings pending any where. Such"friend" shall, how ever, not be allowed to address the Inquiry Officer nor to crossexamine the witness.153.9If the enrolled member charged fails to turn up on the day fixed for the start ofinquiry and no reasonable excuse is offered for not being present on the fixed timeand day, the Inquiry Officer may commence the inquiry ex parte.153.10At the commencement of the Inquiry, the party charged shall be asked to entera plea of "guilty" or "mot guilty" after which evidence necessary to establish thecharge shall be let in. The evidence shall be material to the charge and may either beoral or documentary. If oral-(a)it shall be direct;(b)it shall be recorded by the Inquiry Officer in the presence of the partycharged; andthe party charged shall be allowed to cross-examine the witness.153.11If the witnesses are government officers of a rank superior to the party charged, the Inquiry Officer may, at the request of the party charged, put the questionsto such officer.153.12If the evidence shall be recorded, in the presence of the party charged, by the Inquiry Officer himself or on his dictation by a scribe. Cross-examination by the partycharged or the fact of his declining to cross-examine the witness, as the case may be,shall also be recorded. The statement of each witness shall be read over to him andexplained, if necessary, in the language of the witness, whose signature shall beobtained as a token of his having understood the contents. Statement shall also besigned by the Inquiry officer and the party charged. Copy of each statement shallgiven to the party charged who shall acknowledge receipt on the statement of witnessitself. The Inquiry Officer shall recorded a certificate of having read over thestatement to the witness in the presence of the party charged.153.13Documentary exhibits, if any, are to be numbered while being presented by theconcerned witness and reference of the number shall be noted in the statement of thewitness. Such documents may be admitted in evidence as exhibits without beingformally proved unless the party charged does not admit the genuineness of such adocument and wishes to cross-examine the witness who is purported to have signed it.Copies of the exhibits may be given to the party charged on deemed except in the caseof voluminous documents, where the party charged may be allowed to inspect thesame in the presence of Inquiry Officer and take notes.153.14Unless specifically mentioned in these rules, the provisions of the Code of Criminal Procedure,, 1973 and the Indian Evidence Act, 1872 shall not apply to thedepartmental Proceedings under these rules.153.15The party charged shall then be examined and his statement recorded by the Inquiry Officer. If the party charged has pleaded guilty and does not challenge theevidence on record, the proceedings shall be closed for orders. If the pleads "norguilty" he shall be required to file within 10 days a written statement together with alist of such witness as he may wish to produce in his defence and giving therein a gistof evidence that each witness is expected to give. If he declines to file a writtenstatement, he shall again be examined by the Inquiry Officer on the expiry of theperiod allowed and his statement, if any, recorded.153.16If the party charged refuses to produce any witnesses of produce any evidencein his defence, the proceedings shall be closed for orders, if he produces any evidence,the Inquiry officer shall produced to record the evidence. If the Inquiry Officerconsiders that the evidence of any witness or any document which the party chargedwants to produce in his evidence is not material to the issue involved in the case, hemay refuse to call such witness or to allow such document to be produced in evidence,but in all such cases he must briefly record his reasons for considering the evidenceinadmissible. When all relevant evidence has been brought on record, theproceedings shall be closed for orders after recording the statement, if any, of theparty charged and obtaining any clarification, if necessary, from him.153.17Under no circumstances [Chief Security Commissioner] [Substituted 'Additional' by Notification No. G.S.R. 140(E), dated 2.2.2018 (w.e.f. 3.12.1987)] prosecution witness shall be examined after the defence has been let in unless supplementary defence witness have been allowedon that ground. How ever of at any stage during the inquiry, it appears to the Inquiry Officer that examination of any witness who ahs not been produced by either party sofar or recall of any witness who has already been examined is essential in the interestof justice or to clear any doubt, he may summon him for the purpose and examine himas a witness of the Inquiry Officer after recording his reasons for doing so. Such awitness may also cross-examined by the party charge, if desired.153.18Whenever any Inquiry Officer after having heard and recorded the whole orany part of the evidence in an inquiry, cases to exercise jurisdiction threin and issucceeded by another Inquiry Officer who has and exercises such jurisdiction, the Inquiry Officer so succeeding may act on the evidence so recorded by hispredecessor, or partly recorded by his predecessor and partly recorded by him orhimself record it fresh as he deems expedient.153.19At the conclusion of the inquiry, the Inquiry Officer shall prepare a report or the inquiry recording his findings on each of the charges with reasons therefore. Thefindings must be of "guilty" or "not guilty" and no room shall be allowed for"benefit or doubt" or personal surmises. A charge shall be deemed to heve beenproved if after considering the evidence before him, the Inquiry Officer believes theingredients constituting the charge to exist or considers their existence so probablethat a prudent man ought, under the circumstances of the particular case, to act upon the supposition that they exist.153.20If in the opinion of the Inquiry Officer, the proceedings of the Inquiryestablish charges different from those originally framed, he may record his findingson such charges:Provided that findings on such charges shall not be recorded unless the partycharged has admitted the facts constituting them and has had an opportunity ofdefending himself against them.
