Cuttack, September 16: Notaries are not authorised to register marriages or issue marriage certificates, a division bench of the Orissa High Court constituted by Justice Sangram Kumar Sahoo and Justice Sibo Sankar Mishra adjudicated on Saturday.
Hearing a habeas corpus petition filed by a married person who prayed for legal assistance from the Court alleging that his wife has been illegally detained by her parents and they are not allowing her to live with him.
During the hearing when the petitioner was asked to submit a legitimate document revealing his marriage, the Court found that a marriage declaration document was prepared on which both the petitioner and the girl had put their signatures and it was sworn before a notary.
The bench observed, “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.”
Asking the notaries to refrain from issuing such marriage certificates, the Judgement of the High Court read, "Time and again Courts across the country have echoed it in an identical voice that Notaries are neither authorised to issue certificates of marriage nor they are legally entitled to notarize any signed declaration of marriage, which is apparently beyond the scope of their functions prescribed under section 8 of the Notaries Act, 1952 (Act no.53 of 1952),”
