Powers and Procedure of the LARR Authority: Section 60

Section 60 equips the Authority to be fast without being rough: free of the Civil Procedure Code's formality but bound to natural justice, holding a civil court's compulsory powers over witnesses, documents and records, with its proceedings protected as judicial proceedings. This note covers the procedural charter, the enumerated powers, and what each is for in an acquisition dispute.

1. The Procedural Charter

Not bound by the CPC: the Authority is not bound by the procedure of the Code of Civil Procedure, 1908, but is guided by the principles of natural justice, and, subject to the Act and rules, has power to regulate its own procedure, the standard tribunal formula: substance over form, hearing over ritual.
What the formula means in practice: pleadings are simple statements of claim and objection; evidence can move on affidavits with cross-examination where it matters; and the enquiry is the Presiding Officer's to manage toward the Act's stated goal of speedy disposal.
Its limits: natural justice is the floor the freedom never touches: notice to every person interested the dispute affects, disclosure of the material relied on, and a reasoned award; procedure "regulated" into ambush is procedure quashed.

2. The Civil Court Powers

For the purposes of its functions under the Act, the Authority has the same powers as a civil court under the Code in respect of the enumerated matters:

Power	What it does in acquisition disputes
Summoning and enforcing attendance; examination on oath	The valuer, the patwari and the rival claimant can be compelled and tested: valuation stops being an exchange of assertions
Discovery and production of documents	Sale deeds behind the comparables, the Section 20 plan, the SIA census and the award file are produced, not paraphrased
Receiving evidence on affidavits	The routine proved on paper, the contested proved in person: the speed device
Requisitioning any public record from any court or office	Registration records, circle-rate notifications and revenue records arrive by requisition rather than certified-copy pilgrimage
Issuing commissions for the examination of witnesses and of documents	Site inspections and distant witnesses handled without halting the enquiry
Reviewing its own decisions, directions and orders	The slip and the overlooked authority corrected at home instead of on appeal
Any other matter which may be prescribed	The rules' residuary: the States' LARR Authority rules fill the detail

3. The Judicial Character

Judicial proceedings: proceedings before the Authority are deemed judicial proceedings within the meaning of the Penal Code's perjury and contempt-adjacent provisions, so false evidence before the Authority is false evidence before a court.
Deemed civil court: the Authority is deemed a civil court for the purposes of prosecution of offences affecting the administration of justice, the procedural bridge that lets it refer perjury and like offences for prosecution.
Why the deeming matters: valuation disputes are document-heavy and temptation-rich, engineered sale deeds, inflated structures, procured witnesses, and the deeming provisions put the criminal law's weight behind the Authority's record.
The composite picture: a single judicial officer (Topic 71), master of his procedure, armed with compulsory process, protected by the deeming clauses, and aimed by the statute at speedy disposal: the design brief of Section 51 executed in Section 60's machinery.

⚠ Key point

Section 60: the Authority is not bound by the CPC, is guided by natural justice, and regulates its own procedure, while holding a civil court's powers to summon and examine on oath, order discovery and production, take affidavit evidence, requisition public records, issue commissions, and review its own orders, with proceedings deemed judicial proceedings and the Authority a deemed civil court for offences against the administration of justice. Fast in form, judicial in substance.

4. Related Topics and Provisions

The bench (Topic 71): who wields these powers
The reference (Topic 73): how disputes arrive
Proceedings and award (Topic 74): the powers in motion
The Collector's enquiry powers (Topic 34): the first-instance parallel