Notary Services in Asansol — Affidavits, Oaths, Certifications & Legal Help

Affidavits — sworn statements of facts. Oath taking — administering oaths for court purposes. Certification — certifying true copies of documents. Attestation — verifying signatures on agreements and deeds. Translation certification — certifying translation accuracy.

Property documents, court affidavits, income declarations, identity proofs, consent letters, power of attorney, indemnity bonds, loan documents, educational certificates for foreign use, travel consent for minors.

In property practice a notary is called upon to authenticate the signatures on transfer deeds, on the declarations of possession and on the indemnity bonds that accompany a transaction. The notary confirms the identity of the signatory and of the witnesses before certifying the signatures that appear on the document that is presented for the purpose.

For a property that is acquired in Asansol, a notarised declaration or an affidavit attesting key facts such as the payment that was made, the nature of the possession and the absence of any competing claim is often filed with the title papers. Banks and the public offices accept these certified documents as evidence of the facts that are stated.

The entry that the notary makes in the register maintained under the Notaries Act gives the transaction a verifiable date and an identity trail for future reference. This is why notarised documents carry weight before the local courts and in dealings with the revenue and the municipal authorities. This is equally true in Asansol, where certified papers are routinely required for banks, insurance and the offices of the government.

Notarisation and registration serve entirely different purposes in law, and clients often confuse the two. Registration is a formal recording of the instrument before the Sub-Registrar, which gives the instrument public notice and, for transfers of immovable property, is what actually passes title from one person to another in law. The notary acts as a witness of identity, while the registrar acts as the public custodian of the title record of the state.

Notarisation, by contrast, authenticates signatures and certifies copies and affidavits. It does not transfer title and it does not replace a registered deed, for a notarised sale agreement may be strong evidence of a transaction, but it is not a substitute for a registered sale deed before the courts. It is therefore a supporting act and not a substitute for the formal registration that the law requires for a transfer.

For this reason property deeds in West Bengal are registered even when they are also witnessed and notarised, while supporting documents such as affidavits, declarations and indemnity bonds are commonly only notarised. Clients in Asansol should know which route their particular document actually requires in order to be effective. The parties should not assume that a notarised agreement is the same as a registered transfer of the title to the property.

An affidavit is a sworn statement of facts that is recorded before a person who is authorised to administer oaths, and that person includes a notary public. The deponent declares the facts to be true, signs the document before the notary, and the affidavit is then admissible for the purposes for which it was sworn.

In practice the notary verifies the identity of the deponent, confirms the contents of the document and records the signature that is made in his presence. Every correction in the text should be initialled by the notary, and the affidavit should carry the date and the place of swearing so that it remains reliable in evidence.

Oaths that are required for the commencement of a proceeding or for court purposes are administered in the same manner before the notary. A properly drawn affidavit, executed with all pages and corrections authenticated, stands up to scrutiny far better than one that is prepared hastily without legal assistance. Many clients find it quicker to correct an error before the oath is taken than to deal with a defective affidavit later.

Fees for notarial services are laid down under the rules that are framed under the Notaries Act, and they vary with the nature and the extent of the certificate that is issued. The fee is modest in most cases, and the notary is required to maintain a register of all of the acts that are performed by him.

A notarial certificate has no fixed expiry of its own, for its validity depends on the act that it records. A certified true copy remains a certified copy of the document, although the authorities may call for a fresh affidavit where the facts that it states have grown stale with the passage of time. It is wise to ask the notary whether the particular office or order requires the certificate to be only recently issued.

In Asansol, notaries are available within the court complex and in the offices of the practitioners who are authorised by the government of West Bengal. A lawyer who drafts the underlying document and arranges the notarisation ensures that the certificate is worded correctly for its intended purpose from the very start. A correctly worded certificate saves the client the trouble of redoing the document at a much later stage.