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 The Orissa High Court has said that certificates of marriage issued by Notaries have got no value in the eyes of law and cannot be treated as a valid proof of marriage.

A bench of Justices S S Sahoo and S S Mishra, said, "Time and again Courts across the country have echoed it in 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."

The bench cited this court's judgements in Rohit Kumar Behera Vs State of Orissa (2012), and Ramakanta Nayak Vs Itishree Mohapatra (2017) and Madhya Pradesh HC's in the case of Mukesh Vs The State of MP (2020) to highlight the issue.

Despite such authoritative pronouncements, this Court is vexed to observe that the Notaries are not abstaining themselves from issuing marriage certificates which have absolutely no value in the eyes of law, the bench said.

Without any valid proof of marriage, they are allowing execution of declaration of marriage between the parties which have far-reaching consequences, the bench noted. 

"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," the bench said.
 
Dealing with a matter, the bench came across such a certificate issued by a Notary. It directed the police to produce A K Mohanty, the Notory concerned before it on September 26.

Case Title: Partha Sarathi Das Vs. State of Orissa