Article 338 inquiry powers do not include injunction authority; Commission cannot stop a promotion process pending inquiry.

Article 338 gives the National Commission for Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes investigatory and inquiry powers, including limited civil-court powers such as summoning persons, requiring documents, receiving evidence on affidavit, and requisitioning public records. Those powers are confined to facilitating inquiry and do not make the Commission a civil court for all purposes. Because the power to grant temporary or permanent injunctions is not expressly conferred and cannot be implied from the listed civil-court powers, the Commission cannot issue an interim injunction stopping a promotion process. The impugned direction was therefore without jurisdiction.

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Issues: Whether the National Commission for Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes had power under Article 338 of the Constitution of India to issue a direction in the nature of an interim injunction stopping a promotion process pending inquiry.

Analysis: Article 338(5) and (8) confer on the Commission duties to investigate and inquire into specified matters and, for that limited purpose, the powers of a civil court such as summoning persons, requiring documents, receiving evidence on affidavits, and requisitioning public records. Those powers facilitate investigation and inquiry, but they do not convert the Commission into a civil court for all purposes. The power to grant injunctions, whether temporary or permanent, is not expressly conferred and cannot be implied from the civil-court powers listed in the provision. The limited fiction and analogous powers under the Commissions of Inquiry Act, 1952 support this confined construction.

Conclusion: The Commission had no authority to issue the interim direction stopping the promotion process, and the impugned order was without jurisdiction.

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