234A. SEIZURE OF DOCUMENTS BY REGISTRAR.

(1) Where, upon information in his possession or otherwise, the Registrar has reasonable ground to believe that books and papers of, or relating to, any company or other body corporate or managing director or manager of such company or other body corporate, may be destroyed, mutilated, altered, falsified or secreted, the Registrar may make an application to the Magistrate of the First Class or, as the case may be, the Presidency Magistrate having jurisdiction for an order for the seizure of such books and papers.

(2) After considering the application and hearing the Registrar, if necessary, the Magistrate may, by order, authorise the Registrar -

(a) to enter, with such assistance as may be required, the place or places where such books and papers are kept ;

(b) to search that place or those places in the manner specified in the order ; and

(c) to seize such books and papers as he considers necessary.

(3) The Registrar shall return the books and papers seized under this section as soon as may be, and in any case not later than the thirtieth day, after such seizure, to the company or the other body corporate or, as the case may be, to the managing director or the manager or any other person, from whose custody or power they were seized and inform the Magistrate of such return :

Provided that the Registrar may, before returning such books and papers as aforesaid, take copies of, or extracts from them or place identification marks on them or any part thereof or deal with the same in such other manner as he considers necessary.

(4) Save as otherwise provided in this section, every search or seizure made under this section shall be carried out in accordance with the provisions of the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1898 (5 of 1898), relating to searches or seizures made under that Code.