*CENSUS ACT 1960

The Commissioner, any Assistant Commissioner, any District

Superintendent, and any census officer authorized by the

Commissioner in that behalf, may by writing under his hand appoint any person as a supervisor, house numberer or enumerator to supervise or take or aid in the taking of a census within any specified area.

Every census officer shall be deemed to be a public servant within the meaning of the Penal Code [Act 574].

Census officers to carry proof of appointment

Every census officer appointed by notification in the Gazette shall carry with him at all times when on census duty a copy of the notification in the Gazette appointing him a census officer.

Regulations

the duties of census officers;

the functions of any committee appointed under subsection 4(1);

the particulars regarding which, the persons from whom, and the mode in which, information shall be obtained for the purposes of any census;

the forms of schedules to be used in obtaining any such particulars;

the form of requisition to be addressed to employers of labour under section 12;

such other matters as are required to be prescribed.

8 Laws of Malaysia

Occupier to allow access and permit affixing of numbers

The occupier shall, within the time mentioned therein, fill in the schedule, or cause it to be filled in, in the manner prescribed and shall thereafter deliver the schedule so filled in to the enumerator or supervisor appointed for the area in which the dwelling-house is situated or to any other person as the Assistant Commissioner or

District Superintendent may direct.

If the occupier is unable either to fill in the schedule in the prescribed manner or cause some other person so to fill it in, he shall preserve it in the condition in which he received it and shall deliver it to the enumerator, supervisor or other person as aforesaid who shall

Census 9

then exercise the powers conferred upon him by section 8 and shall fill in the schedule in the prescribed manner.

At any time before or within twelve months (or such longer period as may be prescribed) after the date directed for the taking of the census any census officer may, if instructed by any Assistant

Commissioner or District Superintendent so to do, visit any dwelling-house within the area for which he is appointed for the purpose of checking any information obtained or of obtaining further information for the purposes of the census, in which event, after exercising the powers conferred upon him by section 8, he shall—

the person in charge of any mental hospital, hospital, work-house, place of detention, prison, police station, reformatory or lock-up, or any Government, co-operative, collective or tribal farm, or any charitable, religious,

10 Laws of Malaysia educational or other public or private institution or organisation; or to

the keeper, secretary or manager or other person in charge of any hotel, boarding-house, lodging-house, club or other residential establishment, a schedule or schedules in the prescribed form to be filled in in respect of those premises.

The person to whom any such schedule is so delivered shall fill in the same or cause the same to be filled in, to the best of his knowledge and belief, with the prescribed particulars in respect of the premises at the time aforesaid, and shall sign his name thereto and, when so required, shall deliver the schedule or schedules so filled in and signed to the enumerator or supervisor appointed for the area in which the premises are situate or to such other person as the Assistant

Commissioner or District Superintendent may direct.

Enumeration of naval, military and air forces and travellers

any military or air force or any body of men belonging to a vessel of war; and

all persons who at the time when the census is being taken are travelling, or on shipboard, or for any other reason not abiding in any premises of which account is to be taken in the census, and shall include the information in the abstracts to be made by him as provided in section 15.

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Employers of labour may be required to be enumerators

of ten or more labourers who reside upon any agricultural estate or mining property, or in any factory or work-shop;

or

of such other class or description of labourers as may be prescribed, shall, upon receipt of a written requisition in that behalf in the prescribed form signed by an Assistant Commissioner or District

Superintendent, act or appoint an agent to act as enumerator in respect of all persons employed or residing upon or in the estate, mining property, factory or work-shop.

Every such employer or agent shall enter or cause to be entered, in the schedules delivered to him for the purpose, the prescribed particulars regarding all persons referred to in subsection (1) and shall deliver the schedules, filled in to the best of his knowledge and belief, to the enumerator or supervisor appointed for the area within which the estate, mining property, factory or work-shop is situate, or to such other person as the Assistant

Commissioner or District Superintendent may direct.

Government servants to assist in taking census

In any abstract prepared under subsection (1) with reference to any trade or industry the particulars and information comprised in the abstract shall not be arranged in any way which would enable any person to identify any particulars or information so published as being particulars or information relating to any individual person or business.

Offences by census officers

without sufficient cause, refuses or neglects to comply with any instruction or requisition addressed to him by the

Commissioner, an Assistant Commissioner or a District

Superintendent, or fails to use reasonable diligence in performing any duty imposed on him;

wilfully puts an offensive or improper question;

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knowingly makes any false return; or

asks, receives, or takes from any person other than an authorized officer of the Government any payment or reward, shall be guilty of an offence and shall, on conviction, be liable to a fine not exceeding one hundred ringgit or to imprisonment for a term not exceeding one month or to both.

Any member of a committee appointed under subsection 4(1), any census officer and any person employed in the preparation of the abstracts required to be made under section 15 who discloses or makes use of, except for the purposes of this Act, any information which has come to his knowledge in the course of his duty as such shall be guilty of an offence and shall, on conviction, be liable to a fine not exceeding two thousand ringgit or to imprisonment for a term not exceeding one year or to both.

Other offences

refuses to answer truthfully, to the best of his knowledge and belief, any question asked of him by a census officer which he is legally bound so to answer or willfully makes a false answer thereto;

makes, signs, delivers or causes to be made, signed, or delivered any wilfully false or incorrect schedule, statement, or return;

refuses to allow a census officer such reasonable access to any house, land, enclosure, vessel, or other place as he is required by this Act to allow;

removes, obliterates, alters or injures, before the expiry of twelve months from the time of taking the census, any

14 Laws of Malaysia letters, marks or numbers which have been painted, marked or affixed for the purposes of the census; or

refuses or neglects to comply with any provision of this

Act or of any regulation made thereunder, shall be guilty of an offence and shall, on conviction, be liable to a fine not exceeding one hundred ringgit or to imprisonment for a term not exceeding one month or to both.

Any person who impersonates a census officer shall be guilty of an offence and shall, on conviction, be liable to a fine not exceeding one thousand ringgit or to imprisonment for a term not exceeding six months or to both.

No prosecution without sanction of the Public Prosecutor

In making regulations and prescribing forms under section 6

due regard shall be had to the circumstances of various trades and industries, and in particular to the importance of avoiding the disclosure in any return of any trade secret or of trading profits, or of any other particulars or information the disclosure of which would be likely to tend to the prejudice of the person furnishing the return.

Census 15

Census records secret and not admissible in evidence