177. Having so concluded, this Court is nevertheless of the opinion that a hearing by a larger body and decision by a smaller number (for compelling reasons or otherwise) does lead to undesirable and perhaps at times avoidable situations. To address this, the court hereby directs that when all evidence (i.e. report, its objections/affidavits etc.) are completed, the CCI should set down the case for final hearing. At the next stage, when hearing commences, the membership of the CCI should be constant (i.e. if 3 or 5 members commence hearing, they should continue to hear and participate in all proceedings on all hearing dates); the same number of members (of the CCI) should write the final order (or orders, as the case may be). This procedure should be assimilated in the form of regulations, and followed by the CCI and all its members in all the final hearings; it would impart a certain formality to the procedure. Furthermore, the court hereby directs that no member of the CCI should take a recess individually, during the course of hearing, or “take a break” to rejoin the proceeding later. Such “walk out and walk in” practise is deleterious to principles of natural justice, and gravely undermines public confidence in the CCI's functioning. Once the hearing commences, all members (who hear the case, be they in quorums of 3 or 5 or seven) should continue to be part of the proceeding, and all hearings, en banc. An analogy may also be drawn to the hearings in courts before benches of more than one member. Hearings may take place from time to time before benches of varying composition, but once the final hearing has commenced, the matter is heard and decided only by the same bench. There is no addition, deletion or substitution in the composition of the bench during the course of final hearing. If at all, it becomes impossible to continue the hearing before the same bench (for example, due to one of the judges having demitted office), the matter is heard afresh by the new bench even if the composition is partly common with the previous bench . A similar example may be given of hearings in the Supreme Court - if a matter is heard in part by a bench of two judges, further hearings are held only before that bench, and not before the bench of three judges even if both the original members of the bench are also part of the three judge bench. The invariable practice of the courts, which also ought to be followed by the CCI, is that the bench which hears the matter decides it, and that every member who participates in the hearing, is also party to the final decision.
