Post office guide part i - India Post

73. Period for which instructions valid. - Separate written instructions are required for
every change of address; and instructions will not ordinarily be attended to for a longer period than
three months, unless renewed within that time except in the case of persons leaving India when a
longer period may be specified, if desired.
TREATMENT OF UNDELIVERABLE ARTICLES
74. Period of detention of undeliverable articles in post offices. – The following rules
govern the treatment of undeliverable articles in post offices :-
(a) Articles, the addresses of which are so illegible or incomplete as to render delivery
impossible or whose wrappers get lost or detached, are sent at once to the Returned
Letter Office for disposal, except when they are fully prepaid and the name and address
of the sender appear on the outside when they are returned to the sender.
(b) Articles, the addressees of which are not known or have left the station of address
without intimating their fresh address to the post office or are not found at the address
given on articles are ordinarily kept in deposit in the head, sub or branch post office to
which they are addressed, for a period of seven days after all enquiries to find the
addressee have proved unsuccessful. After seven days, articles (including insured
articles) which bear clearly o the outside the names and addresses of the senders and on
which no postage or other sum is due to be recovered, are returned direct to the senders,
while other articles, are forwarded to the Returned Letter Office for disposal. If an
article has been redirected to the post office at which it is found to be undeliverable, it
is not kept in deposit, after it has been ascertained that the addressee cannot be found.
(c) Undelivered telegrams, which are in course of transmission by post, are kept in the post
office to which they are addressed for a period of three days from the date on which
they reach that office, and are then returned to the telegraph office by which they were
posted.
(d) Undelivered packets of registered newspapers are returned direct to the sender after 7
days.
(e) An undelivered postal article, of which the addressee –
(i) has refused or omitted to take delivery after due notice has been given to him by the
post office,
(ii) is known to have gone away from India without leaving instructions at the post
office as to the redirection of his correspondence, or
(iii)is dead and there is no person to whom the article could properly be delivered, is
not detained in the post office to which it is addressed, but is sent at once to the
Returned Letter Office, with the following exceptions :-