By Aires Rodrigues
It is time that the judicial authority cracks the whip to bring some sanity and sanctity to the despicable manner in which some of the notary work is conducted.
The profession of notaries is regulated by the Notaries Act, 1952 and allows a notary to verify, authenticate, certify or attest the execution of any document, to administer oaths and to or take affidavits from any person. By the Notaries Rules, 1956 every notary is supposed to maintain a notarial register making an entry of every document attested and a notary is supposed to operate from an office within the area mentioned in the certificate issued to him.
The executant of a document and the persons identifying him have by law to sign in a register to be maintained by every notary something that is glaringly violated by many of the notaries in cities like Mumbai and Delhi. Notaries and their agents cannot be pimping out at bus stops outside courts and court canteens blindly signing documents without even the presence of the executant of the document and the witnesses identifying the executant.
Notarising has attained notoriety and even a document signed in the name of a dead man can be attested without any hassles whatsoever. A few of such cases have even surfaced in Goa. In a way all this brings disrepute to the whole legal system which has to be set right. Notary work is serious business and not all about rubber stamps only
