Functions and Powers of the Commission
(Chapter III, Section 11)

 11. ( I ) Subject to the provision of this Act, the Commission shall perform all of the following functions:
(a) investigate and examine all matters relating to the safeguards provided for women under the Constitution of India (hereinafter referred to as the Constitution) and other laws and recommend steps to be taken by the State Government for effective implementation of such safeguards;

(b) Review the existing provisions of the Constitution and other laws affecting women and recommend amendments thereto so as to suggest remedial legislative measure to meet any lacunae, inadequacies or shortcomings in such legislations;

(c) Take up the cases of violation of provisions of the Constitution and of other laws relating to women in the State with appropriate authorities;

(d) look into complaints and take suo-moto notice of matters relating to –
(1) deprivations of women’s rights;

(2) non-implementation of laws enacted to provide protection to women;

(3) non-compliance of policy decisions, guidelines, instructions aimed at mitigating hardships and ensuring welfare and relief to women and taken up issues arising out of such matters with appropriate authorities;

(4) call for special studies or investigations into specific problems or situations arising out of discrimination and atrocities against women and identify the constraints so as to recommend strategies for their removal;

(5) evaluate the progress of advancement of women in the State;

(6) visit a jail, destitute girls’ home, women’s institutions or other place of custody where women are kept as prisoners or otherwise and take up with concerned authorities such matters for remedial action as may be necessary.

(2) The State Government may consult the Commission on policy matters affecting women.

(3) The Commission shall, while investigating any matter referred to in clauses (a) and (d) of sub-section (1), have all the powers of a civil court under the Code of Civil Procedure, 1908 while trying a suit, and, in particular, in respect of the following matters:

(a) summoning and enforcing the attendance of any person from any part of India examining him on oath;
(b) requiring the discovery and production of any document;
(c) receiving evidence on affidavits;
(d) any other matter which may be prescribed.

(4) (a) The Commission shall present to the State Government every six months and at such other times as the Commission may deem fit reports of its activities together with its recommendations and the State Government shall cause them to be laid before the State Legislature as soon as possible along with a memorandum explaining the action taken or proposed to be taken on the recommendations and reasons for non-acceptance, if any, of any of such recommendations.

(b) It shall be the duty of the Commission to furnish comments and recommendations on any report of the National Commission for Women on any matter with which the State Government is concerned as that Government may call for.
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