Short title.

Local extent.

Commencement.

2. (1) Act No. III of

Act No. III. of 1871 repealed.

I.—Preliminary.

1. This Act may be called the Indian Paper Currency Act, 1882:

It extends to the whole of British India;

and it shall come into force on the passing thereof.

1871 (to consolidate and amend the law relating to the Government Paper Currency) is hereby repealed.

(2) All appointments made, rules prescribed, notifications published, authorities conferred, securities purchased and notes issued under the said Act, or any Act thereby repealed, shall, if in force, undisposed of or in circulation when this Act comes into force, be deemed to be respectively made, prescribed, published, conferred, purchased and issued under this Act. And all references made to any portion of the Indian Paper Currency Act, 1871, or any Act thereby repealed, in Acts or Regulations passed before this Act comes into force, shall be deemed to be made to the corresponding portion of this Act.

II.-The Department of Paper Currency.

3. (1) There shall continue to be a Department of the public service, whose function shall be the issue of promissory Department of Paper Currency. notes of the Government of India, payable to

bearer on demand, for such sums, not being less than five rupees, as the Governor General in Council, from time to time, directs.

(2) Such notes shall be called currency notes.

(3) The Department shall be called the Department of Paper Currency. 4. At the head of the Department there shall be an officer called the

Head Commissioner.

Commissioners for Madras, Bombay, and Rangoon.

Head Commissioner of Paper Currency, and there shall be three other officers, called, respectively, the Commissioner of Paper Currency for Madras, the Commissioner of Paper Currency for Bombay, and the Commissioner of Paper Currency for Rangoon.

Power to establish Circies of Issue, &c.

5. The Governor General in Council may, from time to time, by order notified in the Gazette of India,—

(a) establish districts, to be called Circles of Issue, four of which circles shall include the towns of Calcutta, Madras, Bombay, and Rangoon, respectively,

(b) appoint in each circle some one town to be the place of issue of currency notes, as hereinafter provided,

(c) establish in each such town an office or offices of issue,

337

(d) establish in any town situate in any circle an office, to be called a Currency Agency, and

(e) declare that, for the purposes of this Act, any town (other than Calcutta, Madras, Bombay, or any town situate in British Burma) in which an office of issue is established, shall be deemed to be situate within such Presidency as is specified in the order.

6. For each Circle of Issue, other than those which include the towns of Calcutta, Madras, Bombay, and Rangoon, there shall be an officer, called the Deputy Commissioner of Paper Currency, and for each

Deputy Commissioners and
Currency Agents.

Currency Agency an officer, called the Currency Agent.
Subordination of Commis-
sioners, &c.

7. For the purposes of this Act,

(a) the Commissioners of Paper Currency for Madras, Bombay, and Rangoon, and the Deputy Commissioners of Paper Currency in the Presidency of Fort William in Bengal, shall be subordinate to the Head Commissioner of Paper Currency; and

(b) the Deputy Commissioners of Paper Currency in the Presidencies of Fort St. George and Bombay, and in the Province of British Burma, shall be subordinate to the Commissioners of Paper Currency for Madras, Bombay, and Rangoon, respectively.

(c) The Currency Agent at any town shall be subordinate to the Head Commissioner, Commissioner or Deputy Commissioner, as the case may be, of Paper Currency for the circle of issue in which that town is situate.

8. All officers under this Act shall be

Appointment, suspension and appointed, and may be suspended or removed, by the Governor General in Council.

removal of officers.

III.-Supply and Issue of Currency Notes.

Head Commissioner to provide

9. (1) The Head Commissioner shall provide currency notes of the denominations prescribed under this Act, and shall supply the Commissioners and the Curand distribute currency notes. rency Agents subordinate to him, and the Deputy Commissioners, with such notes as they need for the purposes of this Act.

(2) The Commissioners and Deputy Commissioners shall supply the Currency Agents subordinate to them, respectively, with such notes as those Agents need for the purposes of this Act.

(3) Every such note shall bear upon it the name of the town from which it is issued.

10. (1) The name of the Head Commissioner, of one of the Commissioners, of a Deputy Commissioner or of Signatures to notes. some other person authorized by the Head Commissioner, or by one of the Commissioners, to sign currency notes, shall be subscribed to every such note, and may be impressed thereon by machinery.

(2) Names so impressed shall be taken to be valid signatures.

11. The Head Commissioner, the Commissioners and the Deputy Com-
missioners shall, in their respective Circles of
Issue, on the demand of any person, issue
from the office or offices of issue established in
their respective circles, currency notes of
the denominations prescribed under this Act,

Issue of notes for silver by Head Commissioner, Commissioners and Deputy Commissioners.

in exchange for the amount thereof

(a) in current silver coin of the Government of India, or gold coin which is legal hinder under the Indian Crisage act, 1970. A VILL /9342sch (U) in current silver coin made under the Portuguese Conven

11/93

tion Act, 1881,

(c) in current silver coin made under the Native Coinage Act,
1876, as to which coin a declaration has been made under
section 3 of that Act; or

3425ch (d) in-silver bullion or foreign silver coin, not being coin of the descriptions mentioned in clauses (b) and (c), at the rate of nine hundred and seventy-nine rupees per one hundred and eighty thousand grains of silver fit for coinage and of the standard fineness prescribed by the Indian Coinage Act, 1870 : Provided that in all places where there is no Mint of the Government of India, any such Head Commissioner, Commissioner or Deputy Commissioner may refuse to issue notes in exchange for the bullion or coin receivable under clause (d).

12. Any Currency Agent to whom notes have been supplied under section nine may, if he thinks fit, on the Issue of notes for silver by demand of any person, issue from his agency Currency Agents. any such notes in exchange for the amount 43, thereof in any coin specified in clause (a), clause (b) or clause (c) of section

5.25ch

5.25ch

eleven.

13. The Governor General in Council may, from time to time, by order
notified in the Gazette of India, direct that
Issue of notes for gold.
currency notes, to an extent to be specified in
the order, not exceeding one-fourth of the total amount of issues represented
by coin and bullion as provided by this Act, shall be issued at such offices
of issue as are named in the order, in exchange for gold coin of full weight
of the Government of India, or for foreign gold bullion, at the rates, and ac-
cording to the rule and conditions, fixed by that order.

1346

XXII/99 5.8.

VITI /93 52+5ch.

14. (1) The Head Commissioner, Commissioners, and Deputy Com

Melting and assaying bullion or coin received for notes.

assayed.

missioners may require any bullion or foreign
coin received under section eleven, clause (),
or under section thirteen, to be melted and

(2) Any loss of weight caused by such melting or assay shall be borne by the person tendering the bullion or coin.

Certificates for bullion or

15. (1) Every person tendering bullion or foreign coin under section eleven, clause (d), or under section thirteen, and depositing it in any office of issue, shall, after the expiration of the time necessary for melting and assaying the same, be entitled to receive for it a certificate signed by the person authorized to issue the notes aforesaid.

coin.

(2) The certificate shall

(a) acknowledge the receipt of the bullion or coin,

(b) state the amount of notes issued under this Act, or of such notes
and cash, to which the holder is entitled in exchange for the bullion
or coin, and

(c) state the interval, on the expiration of which, if the certificate is
presented to the office, the holder shall be entitled to receive that

amount.

IV.-Notes where legal tender and where payable.

16. Within any of the

Notes where legal tender.

in payment or on account of

said Circles of Issue, a currency note issued
from any town in that circle shall be a legal
tender for the amount expressed in that note,

L

(a) any revenue or other claim, to the amount of five rupees and upwards, due to the Government of India, and

(b) any sum of five rupees and upwards, due by the Government of
India, or by any body corporate or person in British India:

Provided that no such note shall be deemed to be a legal tender by the
Government of India at any office of issue.

2

See do fon news. 17(1),

Notes where payable.

(2) + (3).

2

17. A currency note shall be payable only

(a) at the office or offices of issue of the town from which it has been issued, and

3

(b) in the case of notes issued from any town not situate in British Burma, also at the Presidency-town of the Presidency within which that town is situate.

18. For the purposes of sections sixteen and seventeen, notes issued

Notes issued from Currency Agencies to be deemed to be issued from place of issue of circle.

from any Currency Agency shall be deemed to
have been issued from the town appointed
under section five to be the place of issue in
the Circle of Issue in which that Agency is
established.

V.-Reserve.

PC1.984

19. The whole amount of the coin and bullion received under this Act, and under Act III. of 1871, for currency /see G99. (1896) notes, shall be retained and secured as a reserve to pay those notes, with the exception of amended by 2 lighty 3 one humired 2 such an amount, not exceeding ty millions XV os of rupees, as the Governor General in Council, with the consent of the Secretary of State for India, from time to time fixes.

Coin and bullion received for notes to be kept as a reserve except amount fixed as herein provided.

20. The amount so fixed shall be published in the Gazette of India,
and the whole or such part thereof as the
Governor General in Council from time to

Investment of such amount.

21. (1) The said coin, Appropriation of coin, bullion and securities.

time fixes, shall be invested in securities of the Government of India.
bullion and securities shall be appropriated and
set apart to provide for the satisfaction and
discharge of the said notes; and the said notes
shall be deemed to have been issued on the
security of the said coin, bullion and securities, as well as on the general
credit of the Government of India:

3

02 sch Provided that any silver bullion or coin received under section eleven, buk clause (d), may be sold or exchanged for silver coin of the Government of India, and that any gold coin or bullion received under section thirteen may be sold or exchanged for silver coin or bullion, to be so appropriated and set apart instead of the coin or bullion sold or exchanged.

/13.5.25ch (2) For the purposes of this section, silver bullion and coin shall be

rated at ninety-eight rupees per eighteen thousand grains of standard
fineness, and gold bullion and coin at the rates fixed by the Governor
General in Council under section thirteen.

22. The securities purchased under section twenty shall be held by
the Head Commissioner and the Master of the
Mint at Calcutta, in trust for the Secretary of
State for India in Council.

Trustees of securities purchased under Act.

for fold or silver com of the Gommment of d., dia extitite babe which shall be is