Apostille Convention

The Allahabad High Court recently ruled that the Government cannot disbelieve Apostille documents Issued by the countries signatory to the Apostille Convention.

About the judgement:

• The case of Naromattie Devi Ganpat vs. Union of India, checked the eligibility of a foreign citizen of Indian origin for an Overseas Citizen of India (OCI) Card.
• The respondents cannot compel the petitioner to produce a Nativity Certificate, in case of failure to maintain it by the government authorities.
• The court highlighted India as a signatory to the Hague Convention, citing the Ministry of External Affairs recognized ‘Apostille’ documents as legally valid.
• The court directed for processing the petitioner’s OCI Card application under Section 7A of the Citizenship Act, 1955.
• It mandated the conversion of the petitioner’s visa to expedite the issuance of the OCI Card.

About Apostille Convention:

• It is known as The Convention of Abolishing the Requirement of Legalisation for Foreign Public Documents.
• This is an international treaty drafted by the Hague Conference on Private International Law (HCCH), and signed on 5 October 1961.
• It is intended to simplify the procedure through which a document, issued in one of the contracting states, can be certified for legal purposes in the other contracting states.
• A certification under the Convention is called an apostille or Hague apostille.
• An apostille is an international certification comparable to a notarisation, and may supplement a local notarisation of the document.

Purpose and Procedure:

• An apostille issued by the state of origin is sufficient to certify the document, and removes the need for further certification by the destination state.
• Apostille is done for personal documents (Birth & death, marriage certificates, Affidavits, Power of Attorney) and educational documents (degree, diploma, secondary certificates).
• As India is a member of the Hague Apostille Convention, 1961, no further attestation or legalization of a document apostilled by a member country, should be required.
• An apostilled document should be treated as a legalized document for all purposes in India by all concerned, under the international obligation under the Convention.

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