Section 37

Subject to this Act and to the conditions under which they are made available to or deposited in the National Archives, public archives shall be made available to the public after twenty-five years from the date of conclusion of the record or material forming the public archives or such period as the Director General may prescribe.

The Director General shall make available, subject to such conditions, restrictions or procedure as may be prescribed, reasonable facilities to enable members of the public to refer to and obtain copies of or extracts from public archives.

The proper officer may make available to the members of the public, subject to such conditions, restrictions or procedure as may be prescribed, any public archives for reference, research or other purposes.

Any requirement imposed by any other written law that public archives of any description which are in the custody or under the control of the National Archives shall be made available for reference shall be satisfied by the making available for reference of microfilm recordings, photographic copies of the classified records or any other forms of storage of the public archives.

No person shall make copies of or take extracts from any public archives except in accordance with this Act.

Any person who contravenes subsection (5) commits an offence and shall on conviction be liable to a fine not exceeding five thousand ringgit or to imprisonment for a term not exceeding one year or to both.

Without prejudice to the generality of subsections (1), (2),

, (4) and (5), access to public archives shall be as prescribed.

25

National Archives