I. STATUTES / TREATISE

THE NOTARIES ACT, 1952

Section 14 - deals with the reciprocal recognition of the acts done by foreign notaries. Under the notification dated August 18, 1960, this section recognizes the existing reciprocity of notirial acts between India and the United Kingdom.

Section 14 states, "If the Central Government is satisfied that by the law or practice of any country or place outside India, the notarial acts done by Notaries within India are recognized for all or any limited purposes of that country or place, the Central Government may, by notification in the official gazette, declare that the notarial acts lawfully done by notaries within such country or place shall be recognized within India for all purposes or, as the case may be, for such limited purposes as may be specified in the notification."1

CODE OF CIVIL PROCEDURE, 1908

As stated under Section 139 of the Civil Procedure Code, it can be inferred that the Notary Public is not a person competent to administer oath to a deponent under that section.

Section 139:

"In the case of any affidavit under this Code - -

  1. Any Court or Magistrate, or
  2. Any officer or other person whom a High Court may appoint in this behalf, or
  3. Any officer appointed by any other Court which the State Government has generally or specially empowered in this behalf, may administer the oath to the deponent."2

APOSTILLE AND / OR LEGALIZE

Brief history/introduction-

In 1961, many countries joined together to create a simplified method of "legalizing" documents for universal recognition. Apostille is accepted in 105 member-countries of the Convention. Apostille is done for personal documents like birth/death/marriage certificates, Affidavits, Power of Attorney, etc. and educational documents like degree, diploma, matriculation and secondary level certificates etc. Any document Apostilled in one member country is acceptable in all the other 104 member countries, signatory to the referred convention of 1961 thus, greatly simplifying the process of attestation by obliterating the need to get the documents attested in each country or for each of the countries separately.17

Legalization: The documents need to be legalized in some countries that are not a part of the Convention. The verification process is quite similar to apostillization; however, there is a requirement of an additional Embassy Legalization by the Consular Office of the country in which the document is to be used. In other instances, there are countries that require further authentication for international acceptance of notarized documents over and above the Apostille.

Foonotes

1 SECTION 14, THE NOTARIES ACT, 1952.

2 SECTION 139, CIVIL PROCEDURE CODE, 1908.

3 Apostille, MINISTRY OF EXTERNAL AFFAIRS, See http://mea.gov.in/apostille.htm (last assessed on, May 9th, 2018).

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