Notaries Directed to Abstain from Executing Marriage and Divorce Deeds

Through an office memorandum issued by the department of legal affairs, Notaries have been directed to abstain from executing marriage or divorce deeds as they are not appointed as marriage officers. It was observed that some notaries were also issuing marriage certificates and allowing execution of declarations of marriage between parties. There are also instances of child marriage performed through notarised pre-marriage agreements.

The notification cites judgements by the Odisha High Court in Partha Sarathi Das v. State of Orissa & Others, M.P. High Court in Mukesh s/o Lakshman @Lakshminaryan V. State of MP and Bundel Singh Lodhi v. State of M.P., as well as the Hon’ble Supreme Court in Bhagwan Singh V. State of U.P. & Ors. by which the functions and duties of a Notary have been limited to the ones enumerated in Section 8 of the Notaries Act, 1952 and the transaction of business contained in Rule 11. It has further been clearly held that Notaries are not appointed as marriage officers and are therefore not authorised to execute marriage and divorce deeds

Disregarding the direction would tantamount to misconduct and action may be taken under Section 10 of the Notaries Act, 1952 and Rule 13 of the Notaries Rules, 1956, against such Notaries.