Commonwealth Numbered Acts

CORPORATIONS ACT 1989 No. 109 of 1989 - SECT 1274

1274. (1) The Commission shall, subject to this Act, keep such registers as it
considers necessary in such form as it thinks fit.

(2) A person may:

   (a)  inspect any document lodged with the Commission, not being:

        (i)    an application under section 1279;

        (ii)   a document lodged under section 1287 or 1288;

        (iii)  a document lodged under paragraph 1296 (2) (b);

        (iv)   a report made or lodged under section 422, 452 or 533; or

        (v)    a document that has been destroyed or otherwise disposed of;

   (b)  require a certificate of the registration of a company or any other
        certificate authorised by this Act to be given by the Commission; or

   (c)  require a copy of or extract from any document that the person is
        entitled to inspect pursuant to paragraph (a) or any certificate
        referred to in paragraph (b) to be given, or given and certified, by
        the Commission.

(3) If a reproduction or transparency of a document or certificate is produced
for inspection, a person is not entitled pursuant to paragraph (2) (a) to
require the production of the original of that document or certificate.

(4) The reference in paragraph (2) (c) to a document or certificate includes,
where a reproduction or transparency of that document or certificate has been
incorporated with a register kept by the Commission, a reference to that
reproduction or transparency and, where such a reproduction or transparency
has been so incorporated, a person is not entitled pursuant to that paragraph
to a copy of or extract from the original of that document or certificate.

(5) A copy of or extract from any document lodged with the Commission, and
certified by the Commission, is, in a proceeding in an Australian court,
admissible in evidence as of equal validity with the original document.

(6) The reference in subsection (5) to a document includes, where a
reproduction or transparency of that document has been incorporated with a
register kept by the Commission, a reference to that reproduction or
transparency.

(7) In a proceeding in an Australian court:

   (a)  a certificate by the Commission that, at a date or during a period
        specified in the certificate, no company was registered under this Act
        by a name specified in the certificate shall be received as prima
        facie evidence that at that date or during that period, as the case
        may be, no company was registered by that name under this Act; and

   (b)  a certificate by the Commission that a requirement of this Act
        specified in the certificate:

        (i)    had or had not been complied with at a date or within a period
               specified in the certificate; or

        (ii)   had been complied with at a date specified in the certificate
               but not before that date;
shall be received as prima facie evidence of matters specified in the
certificate.

(8) If the Commission is of opinion that a document submitted for lodgment:

   (a)  contains matter contrary to an Australian law;

   (b)  contains matter that, in a material particular, is false or misleading
        in the form or context in which it is included;

   (c)  because of an omission or misdescription has not been duly completed;

   (d)  contravenes this Act; or

   (e)  contains an error, alteration or erasure; the Commission may refuse to
        register or receive the document and may request:

   (f)  that the document be appropriately amended or completed and
        re-submitted; (g) that a fresh document be submitted in its place; or

   (h)  where the document has not been duly completed, that a supplementary
        document in the prescribed form be lodged.

(9) The Commission may require a person who submits a document for lodgment to
produce to the Commission such other document, or to furnish to the Commission
such information, as the Commission thinks necessary in order to form an
opinion whether it may refuse to receive or register the first-mentioned
document.

(10) The Commission may, if in the opinion of the Commission it is no longer
necessary or desirable to retain them, destroy or dispose of:

   (a)  in relation to a body corporate:

        (i)    any return of allotment of shares for cash that has been lodged
               for not less than 2 years;

        (ii)   any annual return or balance-sheet that has been lodged for not
               less than 7 years or any document creating or evidencing a
               charge, or the complete or partial satisfaction of a charge,
               where a memorandum of satisfaction of the charge has been
               registered for not less than 7 years; or

        (iii)  any other document (other than the constitution or any other
               document affecting it) that has been lodged or registered for
               not less than 15 years;

   (b)  in relation to a body corporate that has been dissolved or has ceased
        to be registered for not less than 15 years-any document lodged or
        registered; or

   (c)  any document a transparency of which has been incorporated with a
        register kept by the Commission.

(11) If a body corporate or other person, having made default in complying
with:

   (a)  any provision of this Act or of any other law that requires the
        lodging in any manner of any return, account or other document or the
        giving of notice to the Commission of any matter; or

   (b)  any request of the Commission to amend or complete and resubmit any
        document or to submit a fresh document; fails to make good the default
        within 14 days after the service on the body or person of a notice
        requiring it to be done, the Court or any court of summary
        jurisdiction may, on an application by any member or creditor of the
        body or by the Commission, make an order directing the body or any
        officer of the body or the person to make good the default within such
        time as is specified in the order.

(12) Any such order may provide that all costs of and incidental to the
application shall be borne by the body or by any officers of the body
responsible for the default or by the person.

(13) A person shall not contravene an order made under subsection (11).

(14) Nothing in this section prejudices the operation of an Australian law
imposing penalties on a body corporate or its officers or on another person in
respect of a default mentioned in subsection (11).