This is according to the Pay Attention to the Flock Book. I can't remember the page. I handled this situation a number of times but I may have missed a detail, these are the basics I am pretty sure. You can find that book on the Internet and look up the exact questions.
If there is an inactive person in the territory, and the elders come to know that person has perhaps committed a grave sin, or is known to be gravely sinning, the body of elders present at the KH that week meet together. The elders do not form a judicial committee automatically.These are the questions the body of elders review together:
Is this person known as one of Jehovah's Witnesses in the area?
Does this person identify himself as one of Jehovah's Witnesses?
Does this person attend meetings or assemblies?
Does this person have regular contact with Witnesses, either in his neighborhood or through his employment?
Is the person willing to meet with a judicial committee and accept the counsel and discipline given there?
I think those are the five questions. Seems there was also a comment on that page about the persons sin being known as well in the congregation.
Anyway, in my experience, some elders really push for a judicial committee, and others don't. Sometimes its all about the scandal. If a brother or sister is known to be living with a member of the opposite sex not their family, and a lot of Witnesses know it, then most often a committee is formed. But if very few Witnesses know the person, a committee is not formed. I remember once one of the elders came across an inactive brother in service, living with his girlfriend. He had been inactive for years, and had come from another congregation. He was nice, the elder said. Since I was the C.O., I sent two elders back to his house to see if he considered himself a Witness, and would he meet with a committee. He said he hasn't considered himself a Witness for a long time, and no, he didn't want to "come back." We didn't form a committee, no one in the congregation knew him. I told the brothers that if the congregation starts to find out about him, then in the future they may have to form a committee.
I always used to say keep the congregation without reproach, so if a known "sinner" is not dealt with, Jehovah could remove his Holy Spirit.
Wow what a self-righteous idiot I was. Hope I am better now.
You might have had a different experience, comments welcome of course. Elders bodies of course make all kinds of decisions NOT based on the Flock book, so anything can happen.
The reason I put this topic on here is so that those who are inactive or wonder why some inactive are disfellowshipped and others aren't, well those are the questions the elders consider.
BF