Notary attestations are outmoded: Why insist on them?

In Ancient Rome, parties who wanted to record the terms of an agreement had to present themselves before a tabellio—a particular type of clerk whose job was to write down the terms of a contract on a wax tablet, have them witnessed, and make the document official by pressing his seal into the wax.

- RAHUL MATTHAN

By certifying the document as valid, the tabellio ensured that parties who had no other way to attest to the document's integrity each had a legally enforceable copy. In a world without trust infrastructure, institutional intermediaries such as these were essential for commerce. This was eventually formalized as the Notarius of Imperial Rome the precursor to today's notaries.

This arrangement has not changed much in 2,000 years. We still have to appear in person before a notary for various reasons, armed with original documents and stacks of copies so that, after having inspected the original, he can affix his seal to the copies to unequivocally state that they are identical to the original version in all respects.

There are a surprising number of situations in which we still have to perform this ancient tradition. If you lose your PAN card, you need a notarized affidavit. If you have lost a share certificate, Sebi-regulated entities insist on a notarized indemnity affidavit before they will consider issuing a duplicate. If you are a pensioner, you must provide notarized declarations confirming that you are still alive and eligible. And if you happen to lose your educational certificates, you will be required to produce notarized copies of whatever substitute you can find. Even if there is a spelling mistake in your name, there is no way you will be able to set it right unless you present a notarized copy of some other official document with the correct spelling.