Bar on courts for taking cognisance of offences of advocates/notaries: HC

The high court has said that there is a bar on courts from taking cognisance of the offences committed by the advocate and notary under Section 13 of the Notaries Act.

Justice K Natarajan noted this while quashing proceedings against two Mangaluru-based advocates/notaries over correcting the date of birth.

The petitioners were arrayed as co-accused in a case for offences under various sections under IPC, Pocso and Child Marriage Restraint Act registered at Hassan women police station. The police had registered the case in 2017 and subsequently filed the charge sheet.

The allegation against one of the petitioners is that he declared the date of birth of the victim as September 25, 1999, by correcting it from September 25, 2000. Based on the affidavit, the other petitioner made a declaration in the affidavit stating that the age of the victim was 18 years, although she had not completed 18 years. The primary case was that the main accused in the case was married to the victim in Arya Samaj.

The petitioners contended that the main accused and others had produced documents showing the date of birth of the victim. They further stated that if anything is corrected or manipulated by other accused they are not aware of the same. The court pointed out that prior permission is required for filing the charge sheet.

“As per Section 13 of the Notaries Act, there is a bar for taking cognizance by the Court for offences committed by the advocate and notary. Under the said Notaries Act, they have to obtain the permission of the Central Government or State Government for filing the charge sheet and taking the cognizance. Admittedly, the petitioners are said to be Notary of the Central Government,” the court said.

The court further said, “Such being the case, as per Section 13 of Notaries Act, the sanction is necessary or permission is necessary before filing charge sheet and taking cognizance against this petitioner but no such permissions were obtained or produced by the investigation officer along with the charge sheet and also not mentioned anything about obtaining of the sanction in the charge sheet. Such being the case, conducting criminal proceedings against these petitioners/accused Nos.8 and 10 requires to be quashed.”