1000 TIT BITS ON DISCIPLINE -206
863. GUIDELINES FOR ORGANISING AN EFFECTIVE DEFENCE
The first and foremost step to organise an effective defence is to study and understand the procedures fully. For this purpose, not only an intelligent study of this book is essential but the relevant rules under which the inquiry is being held should also be gone through carefully. Based on our vast experience of handling departmental inquiries in various capacities, we venture below valuable guidelines, step by step, in organising defence against a charge, in an effective manner.
(1) The very first thing which we wish to emphasise is that the defence assistant must remember that his role is not of a defence counsel in a criminal proceeding but that of an officer of the Organization with duty to assist the inquiring authority in finding out the truth, by placing before him the correct view point of defence. He can do this by adopting an attitude of complete co-operation with the inquiry officer and presenting officer in finding out the truth.
(2) He should verify that the disciplinary authority who has issued the charge sheet is not himself in any way connected with the matter under inquiry. The Supreme Court has held that in such a situation he should not act as disciplinary authority but an ad-hoc disciplinary authority should be appointed (see Arjun Chobey v. Union of India, AIR 1984 SC 1356].
(3) The law of the land is that the charges/allegations must be specific with full particularity in regard to date, time, person, place and manner of occurrence. In other words, they must contain all the details necessary to understand them properly and to answer them effectively. If they are found lacking in this respect, an immediate reference should be made to disciplinary authority before admitting or denying them.
(4) The charge sheet must be signed either by the disciplinary authority or by an authority expressly authorised by the rules to do so.
(5) The disciplinary authority can inquire into the charges himself also but the normal practice is to appoint an inquiry officer. The order appointing the inquiry officer is normally signed by the disciplinary authority himself.
(6) Check up that the inquiry officer so appointed is an impartial person with an open mind and without any prior knowledge of the matter under inquiry. If the defence has to raise any objection, he should do it in the first instance.
(7) He should check up all factual statements in the charge sheet and the statement of allegations. Nothing should be taken for granted.
(8) While making inspection of official documents, he should take extracts or make out full copies, as may be necessary, of important papers. He should remember that the documents will not be made available to him again for inspection. Hence, he should take all notes he requires while he is inspecting the documents. If photo copies can be made by him or supplied by the Government nothing like it. The defence assistant can accompany the charged officer during the inspection of documents. There is nothing wrong in an officer asking his P.A. to make out copies.
(9) If photo copies are made available to him, he should not forget to compare them with the originals to ensure that they are letter perfect.
(10) If any document included in the list of documents requires proof, the inquiry officer should be informed accordingly without delay so that he can ask the presenting officer to do the needful in the next hearing
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