CUTTACK: The Orissa High Court has ordered for the personal appearance of a Notary based in Simulia of Balasore district after coming across a document in which he had certified a marriage. The court was annoyed as Notaries are neither authorised to issue them nor legally entitled to notarise any signed declaration of marriage.
The State Law Department issued a notification directing all Notaries not to issue Marriage Certificates which is not a function of the Notary under Section 8(1) of the Act, 1952, on March 18, 2009. Also, time and again, courts across the country have ruled that Notaries are neither authorised to issue certificates of marriage nor they are legally entitled to notarise any signed declaration of marriage.
“Despite such authoritative pronouncements, this Court is vexed to observe that the Notaries are not abstaining themselves from issuing marriage certificates which have absolutely no value in the eyes of law and without any valid proof of marriage, they are allowing execution of declaration of marriage between the parties which have far-reaching consequences”, the division bench of Justice Sangam Kumar Sahoo and Justice Sibo Sankar Mishra observed on Thursday.
“Due to such extra-legal and subterfuge arrangements by the Notaries, parties are made to believe that they are legally married when in fact their marriage do not have even the slightest of legal sanctity”, the bench added. The court directed the Notary to appear in person on September 26 to apprise it as to on what basis he allowed the execution of the marriage declaration document before him and under what authority he had attested such document.
The bench came across the marriage document while considering a petition filed by a man who alleged that his wife had been illegally detained by her parents and they were not allowing her to live with him.