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Create a Show Cause Notice
What this document does
The notice an employer serves to put an allegation to an employee and ask for their explanation before any decision is taken. It states what is alleged and when, names the term or policy said to have been breached, and calls for an explanation within a period the employer allows. It asks — it does not announce a finding.
Notice
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Show Cause Notice
0/4 answered
What else is in it — 4 clauses, 3 optional
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
After it is drafted
Getting it to the recipient
A notice takes effect when it reaches the person it names rather than when it is signed, so how it travels matters about as much as what it says. Registered post with acknowledgement due is the usual choice because it produces both a receipt and a card that comes back; courier and email do the same job where the agreement or the statute allows them. Whichever route it goes by, what it leaves behind is the part worth having.
Keeping the proof it was sent
The postal receipt, the acknowledgement card when it comes back, the courier's tracking printout, the delivery report on an email — whichever way it travelled, that record is what shows the notice went out and when. It tends to matter more later than the notice itself, because a recipient who says nothing reached them is answered by a receipt rather than by a copy of the letter. An envelope that comes back refused or unclaimed is worth keeping unopened for the same reason: refusing a notice is generally not treated as having escaped it.
Letting the period run
The period this notice gives runs from when it reaches the recipient, not from the date it carries — which is why the proof of sending matters for working out when it ends. Moving before it expires tends to undercut the notice, since the point of naming a period is to have given it. If a reply arrives, it is worth keeping with the proof of service: what the other side admits in writing can matter as much as what they refuse.
Reading the reply before anything is decided
A show cause notice asks; the decision comes after, and on the material rather than ahead of it. An employee who does not reply is still entitled to the rest of the process, so silence is not itself a finding. Two things tend to matter if the decision is ever looked at: that the person deciding had not already made up their mind, and that the reasons were recorded at the time rather than reconstructed later.
If it goes to an inquiry
Where the reply does not settle it and a penalty is in contemplation, standing orders — in the establishments they apply to — set out what has to happen next, including whether an inquiry is required before any penalty and who may hold it. A penalty imposed without the procedure those prescribe is the usual reason one is set aside later, so it is worth reading them before deciding rather than after.