NOTARISATION AND APOSTILLISATION OF DOCUMENTS
Notarisation is the act of a notary public authenticating by his signature and official seal, certifying the due execution in his presence of a deed, contract or other writing, or verifying some fact or thing about which the notary public has definite knowledge. In India notarisation is performed under Notaries Act, 1952.
Need for Notarisation
Documents are notarized to certify their genuineness and prevent fraud and to make sure they are properly executed. The Notary is considered as an impartial witness who verifies signers and ensures they have entered into agreements knowingly and willingly. In short, its objective is to determine everything is true and genuine on the document.
Some commercial documents should be attested by certain Chamber of Commerce and Industry before submitting to the Ministry of External Affairs.
Generally, documents required for Notarisation are:
1. A duly-filled Application Form for Notarization/Attestation;
2. Original and photocopy of the legal documents,
3. Signed Covering Letter with attestation purpose and the list of the commercial attestation document from the Company of the applicant;
4. Signed Covering letter with attestation purpose and the list of the attestation document from the applicant himself/herself if it is for civil use;
5. Original and photocopy of applicant’s passport and agent’s passport for civil attestation purpose.
Apostille Certificates are issued by Ministry of External Affairs (MEA), Government of India on birth certificates, death, power attorney, marriage certificates, educational certificates and affidavits. Before getting apostilled all the concerned documents must be authenticated by regional offices located in every state.
An Apostille is granted by apostillisation office of a country which is a member of the Hague Convention, 1961. Apostille is certificate which verifies and confirms the seal and signature of person who authenticated the document. Some people call this ‘superlegalisation’.
Need for Apostillization
Sometimes just a simple notarisation is not enough, one might be asked to get one’s documents apostilled, it is known as ‘superlegalisation’ or legalization of documents for overseas use. To bypass it, one has to do is just to get one’s documents apostilled. Once this is done, document is recognised worldwide, such as travel document. Those countries which are signatory to Hague Convention can only issue apostille.