A Commission of Inquiry can be constituted dehors the Commissions of Inquiry Act, 1952, and upon the issue of a notification under Section 11 of the Act, this authority is deemed to be a Commission appointed under Section 3 for the purposes of the Act.

( 1 ) THE constitution and continuance of the one-man Commission presided over by Justice J. N. Takru, hereinafter REFERRED TO to as "the Commission", has been challenged by the petitioner P. R. Nayak on various grounds. Respondent No. 1 to this petition is the Union of India through the Secretary to the Government of India, Ministry of Petroleum and Chemicals and respondent No. 2 is Justice J. N. Takru himself. The petitioner, a Government servant, was, at the relevant time, the Managing Director of the Indian Refineries Limited, a public sector undertaking, now merged with the Indian Oil Corporation, another public sector undertaking.

( 2 ) SHORTLY stated, the Commission was appointed to inquire into alleged irregularities in the grant of contracts and in the actual construction of the Gauhati-Siliguri and Haldia-Barauni-Kanpur Pipelines and in the payments made to two contractors, namely, (1) Bechtels as Design Engineers and over-all Supervisors in Gauhati-Siliguri Pipeline and as Design Monitors and Project Managers in Haldia-Barauni-Kanpur Pipeline and (2) Snam-Saipem for contructing Gauhati- Siliguri and Haldia-Barauni-Kanpur Pipelines.

( 3 ) IT is not disputed that the appointment of the Commission was preceded by the report dated April 29, 1970, of the Parliamentary Committee on Public Undertakings which had, infer aha, recommended to Government,-

"to take immediate steps to bring to book the guilty officers on the basis of the evidence that is already available. The least that would be done is to proceed departmentally without delay against the officers concerned under the relevant Government Servants Conduct Rules. "

( 4 ) THE Commission was appointed by a resolution dated August 22, 1970 (published in the Gazette of India, Part I, Section 1) of the Government of India, Ministry of Petroleum and Chemicals and Mines and Metals (Department of Petroleum ). The resolution states that the Government of India "have decided to set up a one-man Commission under the Commissions of Inquiry Act, 1952 headed by Shri (Justice) J. N. Takru, retired Judge of Allahabad High Court. " The Commission was required to submit its report within a period of six months. It was to devise its own procedures and to call for such information and take such evidence as it may consider necessary. The terms of reference were as follows:-

" (A) (i) to determine whether any payment to Bechtels (as Design Engineers and overall Supervisors in Gauhati-Siligurr Pipeline and as Design Monitors and Project Managers in Haldia-Barauni-Kanpur Pipeline) was made in excess of the amount sanctioned by Government and if so, was such payment justified? (ii) was the induction of Bechtels into the aforesaid projects malct fidea-nd were they shown any undue favour by officials of the IRL/government. (b) to determine whether there have been omissions in regard to scrutinising, editing, compiling and maintaining contractual documents relating to the investigations, designs, construction and supervison of the Haldia-Barauni-Kanpur pipeline and whether the negotiations leading to the contracts were carried out diligently and whether adequate records of the negotiations were kept. (c) whether the then Managing Director, IRL, acted on his own by-passing the Board of Directors in his dealings with Snam and Bechtels in vital matters concerning the capacity of the Haldia-Barauni-Kanpur Pipeline, and whether the amendment of the contract adversely affected the capacity of the pipeline. and whether negligence or improper motive is substantiated against the Managing Director, IRL, for not bringing these to the notice of the Board/government, and, in particular. whether the General Manager and Managing Director were perfunctory and casual in dealing with an important communication of the 26th September, 1963 from Bechtels to IRL mentioning the design capacity of Haldia-Barauni-Pipeline as 1. 9 million Tonnes per year. (d) to investigate the circumstances in which the