Postal Manual Vol. VIII - India Post

to the R.L.O. they will be forwarded to destination (letters being securely closed), and a note of the
irregularity recorded against the post office concerned in the error book.
NOTE 3.- Unpaid and insufficiently pre-paid foreign article of all kinds that may be received in the
R.L.O. should be returned to the senders when their names and addresses are given on or are traceable from
the contents of such article; otherwise they should also be destroyed in the manner laid down in Note 2
above.
DISPOSAL OF UNREGISTERED ARTICLES
411. Redirection of articles. – A R.L.O. may redirect unregistered articles, without
restriction to any post office in India or to any place out of India that is served by the inland post.
Endeavour must be made by careful and intelligent reference to Directories, Army Lists, Civil
Lists, etc., and by seeking information from every available source, to ascertain sufficient and
reliable data for the redirection of articles received by the R.L.O. in its character of an enquiry
office. Those articles regarding which reliable information can be obtained will be redirected, the
revised addresses being written on them legibly in red ink and any marks or words of the previous
addresses which it is necessary to obliterate being neatly scored out also in red ink. Those articles
the addresses of which cannot be deciphered or ascertained, will be treated under rule 413 or 415,
as the case may be.
412. Redirection to foreign countries. – (1) All articles of correspondence originally
received for delivery in India by the foreign post, may be redirected on reliable information to any
country or place served by the foreign post, but correspondence which was originally posted for
transmission by the Indian inland post may not be redirected to places which are not served by the
inland post or to which inland rates of postage are not applicable without the express written
instructions of the addressee.
(2) Before the article is redirected to a country or place served by the foreign post, the
original written instructions of the addressee must always be referred to, and, in the absence of
such instructions, special care must be taken that the information on which the article is redirected
is really reliable and complete.
NOTE. – If a foreign inward article of the letter mail cannot be delivered on account of the addressee
having changed his residence, such an article should not be redirected to him if the sender has indicated by
means of a suitable remark on the address side of the article that redirection should not be undertaken. The
article should be treated as unclaimed and disposed of accordingly.
413. Disposal of unclaimed and refused inland articles. – Unclaimed and refused articles
received by a R.L.O. in its character of a Returned Letter Office will be separated and disposed of
as follows :-
(a) Unpaid or insufficiently paid articles and articles on which any charges have to be
recovered, posted in post offices of Circles not served by the R.L.O., and articles issued
by other R.L.Os., will be sent to the R.L.Os. by which the offices where they were
posted are served, or by which they were issued, as the case may be, and will be sorted
accordingly into the sorting case for R.L.Os.
(b) All other articles will, if possible, be returned direct, to the senders irrespective of the
circles in which they were posted. If the addresses of the senders can be fully
ascertained from particulars on the outside, the articles will be returned unopened; if the
addresses cannot be so ascertained, the articles will be opened, and in case sufficient
information is obtained by a perusal or examination of their contents, they will be
returned to the senders; otherwise they will be treated as Returned articles and placed in
deposit. Articles, the addresses on and the contents of which are written in a language