Press briefing of Cabinet Decision taken on 2022-10-10

Introduction of a new Legal Deposit Act to replace the old Legal Deposit Act

- Systematic management and preservation of public authorities' evidential valuable documents and private documents that reflect the written history and cultural identity of Sri Lanka has been vested with the Department of National Archives. The said Department implements 03 Ordinances viz, the Newspapers Ordinance No. 5 of 1839, the Printers and Publishers Ordinance No.1 of 1885 and the Printing Presses Ordinance No.16 of 1902 pertaining to the legal deposits of such printed publications. Accordingly, legal copies of the relevant documents are deposited in the Department of National Archives. Among the 131 countries in the world, Sri Lanka possess the oldest legal deposit law and it has been identified the necessity of amending the said law to suit with the present day needs. As such, the proposal made by the Minister of Buddhasasana, Religious and Cultural Affairs to instruct the Legal Draftsman to prepare a draft Bill to introduce a new Legal Deposit Act to Sri Lanka based on the preliminary draft prepared by a Committee of Experts in the relevant field since 2018 in consultation with the relevant parties, was approved by the Cabinet.