Unauthorised Documents Act 1961

 

Unauthorised Documents Act 1961

Contents

1.Short title1

2.Commencement1

3.Interpretation1

5.Sending, serving or printing false process an offence1

6.Penalties in case of bodies corporate2

7.Consent of Attorney General to proceedings2

8.Other proceedings not affected3

Notes

Compilation table4

Defined terms

 

Unauthorised Documents Act 1961

An Act to prohibit the issue or use of false or misleading process and other documents; and for other incidental purposes.

[Long title amended: No. 59 of 1979 s. 3.]

1.Short title

This Act may be cited as the Unauthorised Documents Act 1961 1.

2.Commencement

This Act shall come into operation on a day to be fixed by proclamation 1.

3.Interpretation

In this Act unless the context requires otherwise — 

document includes any notice, claim, demand or process, any document relating to any extra‑judicial remedy, and any copy of any document;

tribunal includes any court, judge, magistrate, justice or judicial or public officer, whether in or out of the State.

[4.Deleted: No. 59 of 1979 s. 4.]

5.Sending, serving or printing false process an offence

(1)Every person who — 

(a)sends, distributes or delivers to, or serves on, or causes to be sent, distributed or delivered to, or served on, any other person; or

(b)prints, publishes or sells, or offers or exhibits for sale, or causes to be printed, published or sold, or offered or exhibited for sale,

any paper or writing which is not a document published or issued out of or by or under the authority or with the sanction of any tribunal, but which in the opinion of the court before which any proceedings under this section are brought is intended or likely to convey to a person the impression that the paper or writing is a document published or issued out of or by or under the authority or with the sanction of any tribunal commits an offence against this Act.

Penalty: $500.

(2)In any proceedings under this section, if any person is named on any paper or writing mentioned in this section in such manner as to imply that he is the printer, publisher, seller or sender of the same, that person shall prima facie be deemed to be the person who printed, published, sold or sent that paper or writing.

[Section 5 amended: No. 59 of 1979 s. 5.]

6.Penalties in case of bodies corporate

Without affecting any other liability of any person under this Act or otherwise, a company or other body corporate shall be liable to the penalty for an offence under this Act as if it were a private person; and every director, manager, secretary or officer of that company, and every member of the managing body of any such body corporate, shall also be liable to the penalty for that offence.

7.Consent of Attorney General to proceedings

No proceedings for an offence against this Act shall be taken by any person without the consent in writing of the Attorney General.

8.Other proceedings not affected

Nothing in this Act shall be held to affect any other proceeding, civil or criminal, which might have been taken against any person if this Act had not been passed, but a person shall not be punished for the same offence under any such proceeding and under this Act.

 

Notes

1This is a compilation of the Unauthorised Documents Act 1961 and includes the amendments made by the other written laws referred to in the following table. The table also contains information about any reprint.

Compilation table

Short title

Number and year

Assent

Commencement

Unauthorised Documents Act 1961

8 of 1961

10 Oct 1961

17 Nov 1961 (see s. 2 and Gazette 17 Nov 1961 p. 3195)

Unauthorised Documents Act Amendment Act 1979

59 of 1979

12 Nov 1979

1 Feb 1980 (see s. 2 and Gazette 1 Feb 1980 p. 283)

Reprint 1: The Unauthorised Documents Act 1961 as at 7 May 2004
(includes amendments listed above)

 

 

Defined terms

 

[This is a list of terms defined and the provisions where they are defined. The list is not part of the law.]

Defined termProvision(s)

document3

tribunal3