Inquiry
6. (1) When a police-officer is to be proceeded against any of the offences mentioned in section 4, the authority concerned shall frame a charge and specify therein the penalty proposed to be imposed and communicate it to the police-officer, hereinafter called the accused, requiring him to show cause within a specified time which shall not be less than seven days and not more than ten days from the date the charge has been communicated to him why the penalty proposed to be imposed on him shall not be imposed and also to state whether he desires to be heard in person.
[(2) If, after consideration of the cause shown, if any, under sub-section (1) and hearing the accused in person, if he so desires, the authority concerned finds the accused guilty of the charge, or, if no such cause is shown within the specified time, the authority concerned shall, within twenty-one days of the cause shown or, as the case may be, on the expiry of the said time, by notice specifying the penalty proposed to be imposed, require the accused to show cause within a specified time which shall not be less than seven days nor more than ten days from the date of service of the notice why the proposed penalty shall not be imposed on him.
(3) If after consideration of the cause shown, if any, under sub-section (2), or, where no such cause is shown within the specified time, the authority concerned decides to impose any penalty on the accused, it shall, within fifteen days of the showing of the cause or, as the case may be, on the expiry of the said time, impose on him the penalty specified in the notice under sub-section (2) or any other lesser penalty.
(4) For the purpose of this section, a notice shall be deemed to have been validly served if it is served by delivery to the accused or by affixing it to a conspicuous place of his last known residence or by publication in at least two newspapers.]