5Power of authorised inquiring authority to enforce attendance of witnesses and production of documents

(1) Every inquiring authority authorised under section 4 (hereafter referred to as the "authorised inquiring authority") shall have the same powers as are vested in a civil court under the Code of Civil Procedure, 1908 (5 of 1908), while trying a suit, in respect of the following matters, namely:--

(a) the summoning and enforcing the attendance of any witness and examining him on oath;

(b) requiring the discovery and production of any document or other material which is producible as evidence;

(c) the requisitioning of any public record from any court or office.

(2) Notwithstanding anything contained in sub-section (1), the authorised inquiring authority shall not compel the Reserve Bank of India, the State Bank of India, any subsidiary bank as defined in clause (k) of section 2 of the State Bank of India (Subsidiary Banks) Act, 1959 (38 of 1959), or any corresponding new bank constituted under section 3 of the Banking Companies (Acquisition and Transfer of Undertakings) Act, 1970 (5 of 1970),

(a) to produce any books of account or other documents which the Reserve Bank of India, the State Bank of India, the subsidiary bank or the corresponding new bank claims to be of a confidential nature, or

(b) to make any such books or documents a part of the record of the proceedings of the departmental inquiry, or

(c) to give inspection of any such books or documents, if produced, to any party before it or to any other person.

(3) Every process issued by an authorised inquiring authority for the attendance of any witness or for the production of any document shall be served and executed through the District Judge within the local limits of whose jurisdiction the witness or other person, on whom the process is to be served or executed, voluntarily resides or carries on business or personally works for gain, and, for the purpose of taking any action for the disobedience of any such process, every such process shall be deemed to be a process issued by the District Judge.

(4) Every authorised inquiring authority making any departmental inquiry under this Act shall be deemed to be a civil court for the purposes of sections 480 and 482 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1898 (5 of 1898).