Outlook India: New Delhi: Wednesday, September
19, 2018.
The Central Information Commission has
directed the Law Ministry secretary to expedite the digitisation of notary
records across the country and place them on a website.
The directives came during a hearing
after a Law Ministry official admitted before Chief Information Commissioner R
K Mathur that the records are not being catalogued and indexed properly and are
being stored in the godowns in bundles.
"In this scenario, it is very
difficult to locate the documents which are required from time to time. This
state of record keeping is very perilous as far as implementation of the RTI
Act is concerned," Mathur noted.
He asked the ministry to depute a nodal
officer to submit a report within 90 days on the steps taken by it after past
directives from the Delhi High Court and the Central Information Commission in
this regard.
"The nodal officer should submit a
report indicating the steps taken by them in every State/Union Territory with
regard to digitisation process of notary records," Mathur said.
A notary is a lawyer appointed by the
central or state government under the Notaries Act 1952 who attests documents,
administers oath, etc.
The chief information commissioner said
that notary register is a public record which should be made accessible to
people.
Mathur underlined that a person
approaching a notary for authentication of his documents expects not only to
exercise reasonable care in "notarizing" the signature on a document,
but also to be able to show evidence, often years after the date of the act, that
the notarisation was performed in accordance with proper notarial procedures.
"It is in the larger public interest
that every notarial act should be maintained properly in a notary register and
to archive it securely and indefinitely, or at least for the retention period
as prescribed, if any," he said.
He said the officer should inform the
commission about the actions being taken for preservation/maintenance of these
records.
"It is to be noted that the essence
of transparency lies in proper maintenance of records. This cannot be
compromised at the altar of lack of logistics," he said.
Directing the ministry to improve its
record keeping, the Chief Information Commissioner said only properly
maintained records ensure the accountability of the public authority for every
stakeholder of the society.
"In the meantime, the public
authority is directed to initiate the steps for keeping the records of notaries
all across the country, duly catalogued and indexed as per provisions of
Section 4(1)(a) of the RTI Act and this information should be put on their
website," Mathur said.
He said the ministry should also ensure
that the steps are taken to preserve the records in a secured manner so that at
a latter stage these can be retrieved as and when required.
Mathur said the information is expected
to be in the records of the ministry or else they can call records from the
notary concerned.
"Further, the public authority is
directed to implement the order(s) of this Commission in letter and spirit as
the directions are issued as per the powers vested in the CIC under...the RTI
Act," he said.
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