The Tamil Nadu Revenue Summonses Act, 1869

Collectors, Sub-Collectors, Assistant Collectors, Deputy Collectors, Tahsildars and Deputy Tahsildars shall have power to summon any person, whose evidence may appear to them to be necessary for the investigation of any matter in which they are authorized to hold an inquiry, and also to require the production of any document or other article relevant to the matter under inquiry, which may be in the possession or under the control of such person.

Such summons shall be in writing, and authenticated by the signature and seal of the officer by whom it is issued. It shall require the person summoned to appear before the said officer at a stated time and place, and shall specify whether his attendance is required for the purpose of giving evidence or to produce a document or other article, or for both purposes; and any particular document or other article, the production of which is required, shall be described in the summons with convenient certainty.

The summons shall be served personally on the person summoned, or, if he cannot be found, it may be left for him with some adult member of his family residing with him or by affixing it on the outer door or other conspicuous part of the premises in which he is known to have last resided or carried on business or personally worked for gain.

Any person may be summoned to produce a document or other article, without being summoned to give evidence; and any person summoned merely to produce a document or other article shall be deemed to have complied with the summons if he causes such document or other article to be produced, instead of attending personally to produce the same.

When the person whose evidence may be required is unable, from sickness or infirmity, to attend before the officer issuing the summons, or is a person whom by reason of rank or sex it may not be proper to summon, the officer issuing the summons may, of his own motion, or on the application of the party whose evidence is desired, dispense with the appearance of such person, and order him to be examined by a subordinate deputed by such officer for the purpose.

The officer issuing the summons or a subordinate deputed by such officer under section 6, shall have the same powers as are vested in a civil court under the Code of Civil Procedure, 1908, for— (a) summoning and enforcing the attendance of any person and examining him on oath; and (b) requiring the production of any document or other article.

(1) The State Government may make rules to carry out all or any of the purposes of this Act. (2) In particular and without prejudice to the generality of the foregoing power, such rules may provide for— (a) the form of summons to be issued under this Act; (b) the scale of fees to be levied for the service of processes, when summonses are issued at the instance of parties in an inquiry; (c) the scale of allowances payable to persons summoned to give evidence and their deposit by parties at whose instance the summonses are issued. (3) All rules made under this Act shall be published in the Fort St. George Gazette and, unless they are expressed to come into force on a particular day, shall come into force on the day on which they are so published. (4) Every rule made under this Act shall, as soon as possible after it is made, be placed on the table of both Houses of the Legislature, and if, before the expiry of the session in which it is so placed or the next session, both Houses agree in making any modification in any such rule or both Houses agree that the rule should not be made, the rule shall thereafter have effect only in such modified form or be of no effect, as the case may be, so however, that any such modification or annulment shall be without prejudice to the validity of anything previously done under that rule.