 bill no 180 of  2014 the public records (amendment) bill, 2014 by dr shashi tharoor, mp a billto amend the public records act, 1993be it enacted by parliament in the sixty-fifth year of the republic of india as follows:—short title1 this act may be called the public records (amendment) act, 201469 of 1993amendment of section 22 in section 2 of the public records act, 1993 (hereinafter referred to as the principal act),—(i) after clause (d), the following clause shall be inserted, namely:—5"(da) "private record" means a record created or received by a private individual or a company or any other body other than the records creating agency" (ii) for clause (e), the following clause shall be substituted, namely:—10"(e) 'public records' mean records created or received by a records creatingagency in pursuance of its activities and include—(i) any document, manuscript and file;(ii) any microfilm, microfiche and facsimile copy of a document; (iii) any reproduction of image or images embodied in such microfilm(whether enlarged or not);(iv) any electronic record;5(v) any recording generated, sent, received or stored in any media and on which sounds or images or both are fixed or from which sounds or images or both are capable of being reproduced; and(vi) any other material produced by a computer or by any other device regardless of form or medium1021 of 2000explanation—the expression "electronic record" in sub-clause (iv) shall have the same meaning as assigned to it in clause (t) of section 2 of the information technology act, 2000"3 in section 3 of the principal act,—amendment of section 3(a) in sub-section (2)—15(i) for clauses (l) and (m), the following clauses shall be substituted, namely:—"(l) acceptance, preservation and exhibition of private records of historical or national importance which cannot be appropriately preserved, managed, arranged or exhibited by a private individual or a company or any other body creating or receiving those private records;20(m) making public records accessible, subject to fair and reasonable restrictions, and promote their use by the public;" (ii) after clause (r), the following clauses shall be inserted, namely:—25"(s) granting permission for transfer of those public records that have been in existence for less than twenty years to the national archives of india or, as the case may be, the archives of the union territory;(t) seek clarifications from those records creating agencies that have not furnished action taken report or have not complied with the provisions of the act and initiate appropriate legal proceedings;"; and(b) after sub-section (2), the following sub-section shall be added, namely:—30 35"(3) the director general or the head of the archives shall submit an annual report to the central government and central government shall cause the report to be laid, within fourteen days after its receipt, before each house of parliament, if parliament is in session, and if parliament is not in session, then within fourteen days of the commencement of the session of parliament"4  in section 5 of the principal act,—amendment of section 5(i) in sub-section (2), for the words "may set up", the words "shall set up" shall be substituted; and(ii) after sub-section (2), the following sub-section shall be added, namely:—40"(3) each records creating agency shall publish information annually on the public records that have been appraised, declassified or transferred to the national archives of india, or as the case may be, the archives of the union territory"amendment of section 65  in sub-section (1) of section 6 of the principal act, for clause (c), the following clause shall be substituted, namely:—45"(c) appraisal and transfer of public records which are in existence for twenty years or more in consultation with the national archives of india or, as the case may be, the archives of the union territory with a view to preserve public records"6 in section 11 of the principal act,—amendment of section 11(i) for sub-section (1), the following sub-section shall be substituted, namely:—5"(1) the national archives of india or the archives of the union territory may accept, by way of gift, purchase or otherwise, preserve or exhibit private records of historical or national importance which cannot be appropriately preserved, managed or exhibited by a private individual or a company or any other body creating or receiving those private records"; and10(ii) in sub-section (2), for the words "any bona fide research scholar" the words"public for inspecting and obtaining copies thereof" shall be substitutedamendment of section 127 for section 12 of the principal act, the following sections shall be substituted, namely:—access to public records15"12 (1) all unclassified public records which are in existence for more than twenty years and are transferred to the national archives of india, or as the case may be, the archives of the union territory, shall, subject to fair and reasonable restrictions, be made available to the public for inspection and obtaining copiesexplanation i—for the purposes of sub-section (1), the period of twenty years shall be reckoned from the year of the opening of the public record20explanation ii—for the purposes of this section, the expression "reasonable restrictions" shall include imposing restrictions in the interest of the sovereignty and integrity of india, security of the state, friendly relations with foreign states, public order, incitement to an offence, or conditions of the donor of private records25(2) any records creating agency may grant to any person access to any public record in its custody in such manner and subject to such conditions as may be prescribed:30provided that all unclassified public records, which are in existence for more than twenty years and in the custody of any records creating agency, shall be made available to the public for inspection and obtaining copies thereof, subject to fair and reasonable restrictions, by making arrangements comparable to those made for public records by the national archives of india or the archives of the union territorydeclassification of classified records3512a all classified records being maintained by the records creating agency shall be declassified, for the purposes of this act, on such date or event for declassification, as determined by the concerned records creating agency but such date or event shall not be more than twenty years from the date of the decision of classification:provided that if the sensitivity of the information requires, the records creating agency may mark the records as classified for upto twenty-five years, for the purposes of this act"8  in section 13 of the principal act, in sub-section (2),—amendment of section 1340(i) in clause (b), for the words "and ministry of personnel, public grievances and pensions", the words, "ministry of personnel, public grievances and pensions and ministry of science and technology" shall be substituted; and(ii) for clause (d), the following clause shall be substituted, namely:—45"(d) ten persons to be nominated by the central government for a periodnot exceeding three years, three being archivists, six being professors in the post-graduate department of history in any recognized university and one being an electronic or computer engineer"9 in section 17 of the principal act, in sub-section (2),—amendment of section 17(i) in clause (f), for the words "research scholar", the word "public" shall be substituted; and(ii) for clause (g), the following clause shall be substituted, namely:—5"(g) fair and reasonable restrictions subject to which public records may be made available to the public under section 12;" statement of objects and reasonsrecords are created to serve as evidence of transactions and as testimony of the pastby preserving records generated by our government bodies and other record creating agencies, the national archives of india preserves the memory of the daily dealings of government, citizens, organizations and all connected activities these archives eventually become a keeper of our culture, history, achievements and failuresthe public records act was enacted on 22nd december, 1993 to regulate the administration, management and preservation of records of the central government, union territory administrations, public sector undertakings, statutory bodies and corporations, commissions and committees constituted by the central government or a union territory administration it creates an onus on all the bodies of the government to provide for the safekeeping of information and records of their daily activitieshowever, the act has failed to establish a strong mechanism for accountability and transparency even though an adequate punishment has been prescribed for the offenders, in the absence of any authority constituted for initiating legal proceedings, the penal provisions of the act have never been invoked such procedural lacuna have resulted in ineffective implementation of the provisions of the actfurther, there is a need to ensure that classified documents be de-classified and made accessible to the public after the expiry of a reasonable time period the declassification process should not be left at the mercy of periodic reviews and the judgment of any one individual the ''default option" should be that of openness and transparency the unclassified public records, however, should be made accessible subject to reasonable restrictions involving the security of the state and public orderit is also important to ensure that any citizen, whether a bona fide researcher or not, should have access to inspect and obtain copies of unclassified records preserved by the national archives of india or any records creating agency one should not feel the need to resort to the right to information act for obtaining information from archives it should strictly be in the domain of the public records acthence this billnew delhi;shashi tharoornovember 7, 2014 financial memorandumclause 8 of the bill seeks to provide for reconstitution of the archival advisory board and increasing the number of members on the board from thirteen to twenty-twoall members of the advisory board shall be entitled to such travelling allowance and daily allowance as may be determined by the central government it is expected to be in accordance with the rates admissible to 'group a' officers of the central government the bill, therefore, if enacted, would involve expenditure from the consolidated fund of indiafurther as expenditure would depend on the number of meetings of the archival advisory board, recurring or non-recurring expenditure cannot be anticipated at this stage memorandum regarding  delegated  legislationclause 9 of the bill empowers the central government to make rules to impose fair and reasonable restrictions subject to which public records may be made available to the public as the rules will relate to matters of detail only, the delegation of power is, therefore, of a normal character annexure extract from the public records bill, 1993 (69 of 1993)definitions2 in this act, unless the context otherwise requires,—(a) (b) (c) (d) (e) "public records" includes—i any document, manuscript and file; ii any microfilm, microfiche and facsimile copy of a document; iii any reproduction of image or images embodied in such microfilm(whether enlarged or not); and iv any other material produced by a computer or by any other device, of any records creating agency; (f) (g) "records officer" means the officer nominated by the records creating agency under sub-section (1) of section 5 3  (1)(2)(l) accepting records from any private source; (m) regulating access to public records;(r) obtaining on lease or purchasing or accepting as gift any document of historical or national importancepower of the central government to coordinate, regulate and supervise operations connected with administration, management, etc, of public records5 (1)records officer(2) every records creating agency may set up such number of record rooms in such places as it deems fit and shall place each record room under the charge of a records officer6 (1) the records officer shall be responsible for—(a) responsibilities of records officer(b) (c) appraisal of public records which are more than twenty-five years old in consultation with the national archives of india or, as the case may be, the archives of the union territory with a view to retaining public records of permanent value; 11 (1) the national archives of india or the archives of the union territory may accept any record of historical or national importance from any private source by way of gift, purchase or otherwisereceipt of records from private sources(2) the national archives of india or, as the case may be, the archives of any union territory may, in such manner and subject to such conditions as may be prescribed, make any record referred to in sub-section (1) available to any bona fide research scholaraccess to public records12 (1) all unclassified public records as are more than thirty years old and are transferred to the national archives of india or the achives of the union territory may be, subject to such exceptions and restrictions as may be prescribed, made available to any bona fide research scholarexplanation—for the purposes of this sub-section, the period of thirty years shall be reckoned from the year of the opening of the public record(2) any records creating agency may grant to any person access to any public record in its custody in such manner and subject to such conditions as may be prescribed13 (1)archival advisory board(2) the board shall consist of the following members, namely:—a                                                                                                                                                                     b one officer not below the rank of joint secretary to the government of india,each from the cabinet secretariat, ministry of home affairs, ministry of defence,ministry of external affairs, ministry of finance and ministry of personnel, publicgrievances and pensionsc                                                                                                                                                                                                   d three persons to be nominated by the central government for a period notexceeding three years, one being an archivist and two being professors in thepost-graduate department of history in any recognized university                                                                                                                                                                                                                                       17  (1)                                                                                                                                                                                                            power tomake rules           (2) in particular and without prejudice to the generality of the foregoing power,such rules may provide for all or any of the following matters,                                                                                                                                                                             f the manner in which and the conditions subject to which public records may bedestroyed or disposed of under sub-section (1) of section 8;       g the manner in which and the conditions subject to which records of historicalor national importance may be made available to research scholar under sub-section(2) of section 11;                                                                                                                                                                    ———— a billto amend the public records act, 1993————(dr shashi tharoor, mp)