59.—(1) The Authority or any officer authorised by the Authority in that behalf may, for the purposes of conducting an investigation or for discharging its functions under this Act, by order require any person to produce to the Authority any document, or to provide the Authority with any information, which the Authority considers to be related to any matter relevant to the investigation or for discharging its functions under this Act.
[Act 10 of 2005 wef 16/02/2005]
(2) The Authority or the officer authorised by the Authority in that behalf shall be entitled without payment to keep any copy or extract of any document furnished to him under subsection (1).
[Act 10 of 2005 wef 16/02/2005]
(3) The Authority or any officer authorised by the Authority in that behalf shall at all reasonable times in the day have full and free access to all buildings, places, books, documents and other papers for the purpose of conducting an investigation or discharging its functions under this Act, and may, without payment, inspect, copy or make extracts from any such books, documents or papers.
[Act 10 of 2005 wef 16/02/2005]
(4) The Authority may take possession of any equipment, books, documents or papers where in its opinion —
(a)
the equipment, books, documents or papers may be interfered with or destroyed unless possession is taken; or
(b)
the equipment, books, documents or papers may be required as evidence in proceedings for an offence under this Act or any regulations made thereunder.
(5) The rights conferred by this section shall, in relation to information recorded otherwise than in legible form, include the right to require the information to be made available in legible form for inspection or for a copy or extract to be made of or from it.
(5A) The power under this section to require a person to produce a document includes the power —
(a)
if the document is produced, to require such person, or any person who is a present or past officer of his or is or was at any time employed by him, to provide an explanation of the document; or
(b)
if the document is not produced, to require such person to state, to the best of his knowledge and belief, where it is.
[Act 10 of 2005 wef 16/02/2005]
(6) Any person who —
(a)
fails to comply with any requirement specified in any order under subsection (1);
(b)
intentionally alters, suppresses or destroys any document or information which he has been required by any order under subsection (1) to furnish or transmit to; or
(c)
in furnishing any information required of him under any order under subsection (1), makes any statement which he knows to be false in a material particular, or recklessly makes any statement which is false in a material particular,
shall be guilty of an offence.
[Act 10 of 2005 wef 16/02/2005]
(6A) If a person is charged with an offence under subsection (6) in respect of a requirement to produce any document or information under subsection (1), it shall be a defence for him to prove that —
(a)
the document was not in his possession or under his control;
(b)
it was not reasonably practicable for him to comply with the requirement; or
(c)
he had a reasonable excuse for failing to provide the information required.
[Act 10 of 2005 wef 16/02/2005]
(7) No person shall by virtue of this section be obliged to disclose any particulars as to which he is under any statutory obligation to observe secrecy.
(8) In this section and sections 61 and 63 —
“document” includes any electronic record;
“electronic record” has the same meaning as in the Electronic Transactions Act (Cap. 88).