Show Cause Notice

What this document contains

4 clauses every show cause notice carries, plus 3 you can add.

1. 01

   Who the notice is from and to

   The head of the notice: the place and date it bears, who it issues from, and everyone it is addressed to. Recipients are entered here rather than through the party picker — a notice is served on its recipients, not agreed with them, and the Sender is its only signatory.

2. 02

   Subject

   The one line a recipient reads first, and the line the notice is later found by in a file. Written by the Sender rather than composed from the facts — those live on other clauses, and a clause cannot read another clause's data.

3. 03

   What is alleged

   The employer's account of what is said to have happened, and when. Worded throughout as an allegation rather than a finding: the whole purpose of this notice is to put the matter to the employee before anything is decided, and a notice that recites misconduct as established fact has decided it already. Dharaa supplies no wording for the substance.

4. 04

   The call to explain

   The operative paragraph: the employee is asked to explain, within a period the employer allows. Asks for an explanation — it does not ask why action should not be taken, which presupposes that action is warranted. No statute fixes the period, so it is the employer's own and nothing computes a date from it.

Optional clauses

• What is said to have been breached

  The term, standing order or policy the conduct is said to fall short of. Optional, because not every matter turns on a written rule — but where one exists, naming it is what lets the employee understand the case they have to answer.

  Worth adding when: the conduct alleged is said to breach a written term, policy or standing order

• What the Sender intends if this notice is not complied with

  The paragraph a notice conventionally ends with, in which the Sender says what they intend if it is not complied with. Optional, and never added automatically: whether to say anything at all is the Sender's decision. Where the Sender has words of their own they are used verbatim; where they have none, a neutral closing sentence is rendered that names no remedy and predicts no outcome.

  Worth adding when: the sender has said what they intend to do if the notice is not complied with

• Enclosures

  The documents sent with the notice. Optional, because many notices enclose nothing.

  Worth adding when: the sender is sending documents along with the notice

What the law requires

A show cause notice asks; it does not decide

The function of the notice is to tell a person the case against them and give them a real opportunity to answer it before anything is decided. A notice that states the misconduct as established, or that asks only why action should not be taken, indicates that the decision was made before the explanation was read — which is what tribunals look for and what most often undoes the process.

Principles of natural justice — audi alteram partem; the rule against bias

When a period begins to run

A period running from receipt and a period running from the date of the notice count different things. Where a document is sent by post, service is deemed to be effected at the time the letter would be delivered in the ordinary course of post, unless the contrary is proved.

General Clauses Act 1897, s. 27

Stamp duty

The Indian Stamp Act charges the instruments listed in its Schedule. A notice is not among them: it creates no right, transfers no property and records no bargain.

Indian Stamp Act 1899, s. 3 and Sch. I

The allegation must be specific enough to answer

A person cannot answer a case they have not been told. An allegation stated in general terms — that conduct has been unsatisfactory, that behaviour has been inappropriate — gives nothing to answer, and an explanation called for against it is not a real opportunity to be heard.

Principles of natural justice

Standing orders, where they apply, prescribe the procedure

Where certified standing orders apply to an establishment, they generally define what amounts to misconduct and set out the procedure to be followed. That procedure governs, and a notice issued outside it does not become sufficient because it is in writing.

Industrial Relations Code 2020 (standing orders)

The period allowed has to be a real one

No statute fixes how long an employee must be given to reply. What matters is whether the time allowed was enough for them to answer in the circumstances, and a period too short to gather a response is treated as no opportunity at all.

Principles of natural justice