Destruction of Record Act, 1917

This 1917 Act sets out who has the authority to make rules for destroying or otherwise disposing of old documents held by courts, revenue offices, and other public officers, where those documents are no longer considered valuable enough to keep. Section 1 gives the Act its short title.

Section 3 identifies the authorities empowered to make such disposal rules: a High Court for documents held by it or the civil and criminal courts under it; the Chief Controlling Revenue-authority for documents held by revenue courts and officers; and, for any other public officer's documents, either the Provincial Government (or an officer it authorizes) for provincial matters, or the Federal Government (or an officer it authorizes) in any other case. Rules made by a High Court, a Revenue authority, or a provincially-authorized officer require the Provincial Government's prior approval, while rules made by a federally-authorized officer require the Federal Government's prior approval.

Section 4 validates rules and orders for document disposal that were made before this Act by a Provincial Government or an unauthorized body with provincial approval, treating them as having had the force of law from when they were made, and keeping them in force until replaced by rules made under this Act.

Section 5 is a safeguard: nothing in the Act authorizes destroying any document that another law requires to be kept and maintained. Section 6, which originally repealed other enactments, along with the attached Schedule, was itself repealed by the Repealing Act, 1927.

This is a very old procedural statute (1917) with amendment footnotes showing changes by later Adaptation Orders, so anyone relying on the current text of the rule-making authorities should check it against the present official version.