RAJASTHAN MONUMENTS, ARCHAEOLOGICAL SITES AND ANTIQUITIES (ACT, 1961)

LEGISLATIVE (I) DEPARTMENT
NOTIFICATION
Jaipur, July 13, 1961.
No. F.4(36)LJ/A/57 – The following Act of the Rajasthan State Legislature
received the assent of the President on the 22nd day of June, 1961, and is published
for general information :-
THE RAJASTHAN MONUMENTS, ARCHAEOLOGICAL SITES AND
ANTIQUITIES (ACT, 1961)
(Act No. 19 of 1961)
(Received the assent of the President on the 22nd day of June, 1961)

An Act to provide for the preservation, protection, upkeep, maintenance, acquisition and regulation of, and control over, ancient and historical monuments, archaeological sites and antiquities in the State of Rajasthan.
Be it enacted by the Rajasthan State Legislature in the Twelfth Year of the
Republic of India as follows :-

CHAPTER I

Preliminary
1. Short title, extent and commencement.-
(1) This Act may be called the Rajasthan Monuments, Archaeological Sites
and Antiquities Act, 1961.
(2) It extends to the whole of the State of Rajasthan.
(3) It shall come into force on such date as the State Government may, by
notification in the Official Gazette, appoint.

 Definitions-In this Act, unless the subject or context otherwise requires,-
(i) "ancient or historical monument" means any archaeological building,
structure, erection or monument or any tumulus, tomb or place of
interment or any cave, rock-sculpture, rock-painting or sculpture of or on
stone, metal, terracotta or other immovable object or any inscription or
monolith, which is of historical, archaeological or artistic importance,
interest or value, and includes –
(a) any remains thereof,
(b) the site thereof,
(c) the portion of land adjoining such site which may be necessary or
required for the preservation, protection, upkeep and maintenance of
the same, and
(d) the means of access thereto and of convenient inspection and repairs
thereof;
but does not include an ancient monument as defined in the Central Act,
to which the provisions of that Act apply for the time being;
(ii) "antiquity" means –
(a) any coin, sculpture, epigraph, manuscript, record, document, picture,
painting, printed matter or other work of art or craftsmanship,
(b) any article, object or thing of historical, archaeological or artistic
importance, interest or value, detached from a protected monument or
collected from or discovered in a protected area;
(c) any article, object or thing illustrative of science, art, crafts, literature,
religion, customs, morals or politics in bygone ages, and
(d) any other article, object or thing of historical, archaeological or
artistic importance, interest or value,
and includes any article, object or thing which the State Government
may, by notification in the Official Gazette, declare, by reason of its
historical or archaeological association, to be an antiquity for the
purposes of this Act but does not include an antiquity as defined in the
Central Act, to which the provisions of that Act apply for the time being;
(iii)"archaeological officer" means an officer, of the Department of
Archaeology of the State Government not below such rank as the State
Government may from time to time prescribe;