Malaysia legislation
Section 28
Section 28
(1)
A person who, not being a public officer with special permission to keep and handle records in the course of his official duties, is in possession of any public records which –
(a)
are more than twenty years old; or
(b)
non-current public records which in the opinion of the Director are or likely to be of archival value, shall, on demand by the Director or an archives officer, surrender the public records to the custody and control of the State Records and Archives.
(2)
The public records the surrender of which is demanded under subsection (1)
need not be surrendered if the administrative head of the public officer or the head of the
Government enterprise has permitted the person referred to in that subsection to retain possession of the record.
(3)
Any person who, without the permission referred to in subsection (2), fails to surrender public records as required under subsection (1) 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.
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(4)
This section shall apply to all public records regardless whether they were taken possession of before or after the coming into operation of this Enactment.
Custody and control of public records of a defunct public office