(a)The papers of closed files in the Administrative Office of the District Court and the courts subordinate to it shall be weeded as follows :Reminders and office memoranda which are unnecessary for the understanding of the file and are not likely to serve any immediate separate purpose, shall be destroyed when the file is closed.(b)Correspondence on or relating to the following subjects shall be retained for a period of one year from 1st January of the year succeeding that in which the file is closed ;(1)Medical examination of ministerial officers.(2)Leave, transfer and certificate of transfer of charge of ministerial officers. (These are to be retained for one year after entry in the service book).(3)Verification of securities of public accountants and officials. (These are to be retained for one year after the next verification).(4)Contingent bills.(5)Change of office hours.(c)The following correspondence or correspondence on or relating to the following subjects shall be retained for a period of two years from 1st January of the year succeeding that in which the file is closed :(1)Explanations of delay and letters calling for them.(2)Covering dockets and letters on mere matters of routine, such as those returning enclosures, etc. including those sent to and received from the High Court concerning the grant of certificates to Legal Practitioners under Act XVIII of 1879.(3)Explanation called for by the High Court on quarterly and annual statements.(4)Office copies of all statements and returns prescribed for periodical submission or specially called for by the High Court.(5)Service and execution processes of other courts.(6)Questions of practice and procedure which have been subsequently settled by published rules of the High Court.(7)Assessors.(8)Impounding of documents, and also relating to fines and penalties.(9)Printing and adjustment of charges.(10)Accountant-General's objections on the establishment return.(11)Transmission of records.(12)Entertainment of temporary extra copyist and weeders in temporary record-room establishment.(13)Civil and criminal annual reports.(14)The preparation of list of legal practitioners willing to execute commissions.(15)The Judicial calendar and holidays not specified therein.(16)Attendance of lekhpals.(17)Famine allowance.(18)The supply of repayment order books.(19)Process-serving establishment.(20)Correction of deposit accounts and lapsed deposit accounts.(21)Cases transferred by order of the High Court.(22)Reconciling of discrepancies in sale commission fee returns.(23)Plus and minus memorandum of civil court deposit and objection of Accountant-General regarding deposit accounts.(24)Appointment of, retirement of, or grant of pension to, officials who are dead.(d)The following correspondence or correspondence on or relating to the following subjects shall be retained for a period of three years from 1st January of the year succeeding that in which the file is closed :(1)Appointment in the case of temporary establishment. (The period of retention of the correspondence relating to appointment in the case of permanent establishment in THIRTY-FIVE YEARS).N.B. - Care shall be taken to return all original testimonials to the applicant.(2)Transfer, posting, charge, leave, drawing fresh increment of pay and last pay certificates of Gazetted Officers.(3)Indents for printed forms, stationery and additional copies of circulars.(4)Gratuities to ministerial officers. (But the sanctioning order should be retained for Twenty-Five Years from the date of retirement of the pensioner or for Three Years from the date of his death whichever is earlier).(5)Verification of services of ministerial officers.(c)The following correspondence or correspondence on or relating to the following subjects shall be retained for a period of five years from 1st January of the year succeeding that in which the file is closed :-(1)The distribution of territorial jurisdiction of civil courts.(2)Budgets.(3)Applications for Additional Grants.(4)Powers of Officers.(5)The annual vacation and arrangement of work during the vacation.(6)Payment of rent of buildings secured for court-houses.(7)Travelling allowance bill, books.(f)The correspondence on or relating to salary bills of Gazetted Officers should be retained for six years from 1st January of the year succeeding that in which the file is closed.(g)The following papers among others shall be retained for ten years, computed from 1st January of the year succeeding that in which the correspondence relating to them was weeded :-(1)Estimates of Budgets.(2)Annual reports (Civil and Criminal).(3)Inspection notes, the High Court's orders thereon, and correspondence relating thereto.(h)Correspondence on the following subjects shall be retained until the Presiding Officer orders their destruction :(1)Correspondence relating to pensions.(2)Complaints against officials and correspondence relating thereto, if containing papers likely to be required by the Accountant General when application is made for pension or gratuity.(3)Creation and abolition of courts.(4)Correspondence relating to books, maps; furniture and repairs of court-houses.Note 1. - The Presiding Officer shall ordinarily order the destruction of records (1) and (2) when there remains no possibility of the paper being required to answer a reference of the Accountant-General. Ordinarily in the case of (1) the sanctioning order shall be retained for twenty-five years from the date of retirement of the pensioner or for three years from the date of his death whichever is earlier and the other correspondence should be destroyed after three years. The correspondence relating to (2) shall ordinarily be destroyed after the official has died or retired or has been removed.Note 2. - Such correspondence shall be laid before the Presiding Officer every year and he shall in the case of each file pass one of the following orders to be recorded on the first sheet:(a)that it be at once destroyed;(b)that it be retained for a period of one, five, or ten years from 1st January of the next year;(c)that it be kept permanently;(d)that it be retained until further order be passed.If the order described in (b) or (c) be passed, the file shall be placed with the files which are governed by paragraphs (b), (d), (e) or (g) above, as the case may be.(i)Correspondence on or relating to the following subjects, and any other correspondence which the Presiding Officer shall, in any particular case so direct, be retained permanently, namely :(1)Assessment of taxes or rates on civil court buildings.(2)Suits to which Government is a party.(3)Revision of establishment.(4)Acquisition of land or other property by Government.(5)Appointment of Honorary Munsifs, etc.: Provided that the District Judge may, from time to time, direct the destruction, after ten years, of any such file or part of such file the preservation of which is, in his opinion, unnecessary.(j)[ For instructions regarding the preservation and destruction of service books of Government servants, see Subsidiary Rule 136-A, Financial Handbook, Volume II. [Substituted by Notification No. 126/VIII-b-48 and 1, dated 14-5-1959, published in U. P. Gazette, Part II, dated 3-10-1959.]Any service books may, however, be retained for special reason to be noted therein, and no official can claim, as of right, the return of his service book.Character Rolls are the property of the Government. They shall be kept in the office where he was last employed and shall be put up before the District Judge, five years after the retirement, resignation, dismissal, removal or discharge from service, as the case may be, of the Government Servant concerned, or, in case of Government Servant's death, six months after his death, whichever is earlier, for orders as to whether they should be retained or destroyed.]Every entry in the character roll which may adversely affect the promotion of the official concerned must be communicated to him. Copies of the entries in such rolls will not be given. The practice of issuing commendatory parwanas or separate certificates of good character in the case of officials is strictly prohibited; subordinates may, however, be granted on their retirement such special certificates of good work and conduct as may seem fit.(k)In the month of May each year, the head clerk or such other officer as may be appointed by the District Judge in that behalf, shall examine the files affected by the preceding paragraphs, and having selected the papers to be destroyed, shall lay them before the Munsarim. When the Munsarim has satisfied himself that the papers are liable to destruction, he shall cause them to be sold as waste paper in accordance with the instructions given in Rule 199, Chapter VII of these rules, unless he considers that any of them should be retained for a longer period, in which case he shall submit such papers with a memorandum of the ground of his opinion for the orders of the District Judge. Notes and orders shall be treated as confidential papers.
