Unhappy with the State Govt’s decision to delegate powers of preparing an affidavit in different types of documents to a gram panchayat Talati, Gujarat’s Notaries Association has moved the High Court of Gujarat against the Govt move.
The Notaries Association has filed a Public Interest Litigation questioning the Govt’s delegation of powers under Section 3 of the Oaths Act on gram panchayat talati to prepare affidavits for 22 types of documents. Apparently, the policy decision has the potential to dent the earnings of a notary, who is a lawyer authorized to notarize an affidavit after due verification.
According to the association’s president Diresh Shah, preparing & notarizing an affidavit is legal work. The powers to finalize such document are vested in an officer through the Oaths Act by a magistrate or a judge of the court. The association has raised objection to a clause which says that the government can appoint any person for the purpose.
Diresh Shah said that “The post of a gram panchayat talati can be held by a person who has education qualification of Class 12. This is legal work & a person who is authorized to notarize documents should be of equivalent qualification to a current notary. A peon cannot be a notary. Here many of the talatis do not know English too".
“Delegating these powers to people who are not qualified enough may create problems for common people,” Shah said giving the rationale behind filing the plea.
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