CORPORATIONS ACT 2001 - SECT 1306 Form and evidentiary value of books

CORPORATIONS ACT 2001 - SECT 1306

  (1)   A book that is required by this Act to be kept or prepared may be kept or prepared:

  (a)   by making entries in a bound or looseleaf book; or

  (b)   by recording or storing the matters concerned by means of a mechanical, electronic or other device; or

  (c)   in any other manner approved by ASIC.

  (2)   Subsection   (1) does not authorise a book to be kept or prepared by a mechanical, electronic or other device unless:

  (a)   the matters recorded or stored will be capable, at any time, of being reproduced in a written form; or

  (b)   a reproduction of those matters is kept in a written form approved by ASIC.

  (3)   A corporation must take all reasonable precautions, including such precautions (if any) as are prescribed, for guarding against damage to, destruction of or falsification of or in, and for discovery of falsification of or in, any book or part of a book required by this Act to be kept or prepared by the corporation.

  (4)   Where a corporation records or stores any matters by means of a mechanical, electronic or other device, any duty imposed by this Act to make a book containing those matters available for inspection or to provide copies of the whole or a part of a book containing those matters is to be construed as a duty to make the matters available for inspection in written form or to provide a document containing a clear reproduction in writing of the whole or part of them, as the case may be.

  (4A)   The regulations may provide for how up to date the information contained in an instrument prepared for the purposes of subsection   (4) must be.

  (5)   If:

  (a)   because of this Act, a book that this Act requires to be kept or prepared is prima facie evidence of a matter; and

  (b)   the book, or a part of the book, is kept or prepared by recording or storing matters (including that matter) by means of a mechanical, electronic or other device;

a written reproduction of that matter as so recorded or stored is prima facie evidence of that matter.

  (6)   A writing that purports to reproduce a matter recorded or stored by means of a mechanical, electronic or other device is, unless the contrary is established, taken to be a reproduction of that matter.