DESTRUCTION OF VALUELESS DOCUMENTS

1. This Ordinance may be cited as the Destruction of Valueless Documents Ordinance.

2. It shall be lawful for the Minister of Justice,[1] by Order[1] in that behalf made, to bring any Court of Justice in Ceylon under the operation of this Ordinance, and such Order[1] to amend, alter, or revoke as and whenever the Minister of Justice[1] shall determine.

3. Where an Order under section 2 has been made in respect of any Court of Justice,[3] it shall be the duly of the officer presiding over it to cause to be prepared in duplicate a register of all the records of his court, extant and missing, according to the form I given in the First Schedule, and he shall certify to the correctness of such register.

4. The different classes of documents enumerated in Part A of the Second Schedule shall not be destroyed, but the summonses, subpoenas, and other intermediate processes filed therein may be destroyed :

Provided that no such processes shall be destroyed except in cases which have been determined more than ten years previous to the date of destruction.

5. The different classes of documents enumerated in Part B of the Second Schedule may be destroyed :

Provided that in regard to the money cases relating to persons of unsound mind, and District Court criminal cases therein mentioned, the material particulars of each such case shall have been accurately abstracted and entered in a register as near as may be according to the forms II, III, and IV in the First Schedule :

Provided also that at least three months before the date fixed for such destruction it shall have been notified by order of court, within the jurisdiction of such court, by proclamation in court and beat of tom tom, printed notices, or advertisements in one or more local newspapers, that any person interested in any record may personally, by attorney-at-law, or by duly authenticated petition, claim, upon good cause shown, that such record may not be destroyed; in which event it shall be competent to the court to make such order thereon as to it shall seem meet.

6. The preservation and destruction of the documents of each court in terms of this Ordinance shall be carried out under the personal direction of the officer presiding over such court.

7. A true extract from any register made in terms of this Ordinance, duly certified by the officer presiding over a court, shall be received as prima facie evidence of the matters and things therein contained.