Society registration scope: Charitable, educational, scientific, literary, artistic and museum societies eligible for registration. The Societies Registration Act, 1860 permits registration of charitable societies and military orphan funds, and societies promoting science, literature, fine arts, instruction, diffusion of useful knowledge or political education; it also covers societies forming or maintaining libraries or reading rooms for members or the public, and public museums, galleries, and collections of natural history, mechanical and philosophical inventions, instruments or designs.