India to implement Apostille Convention from Aug 29

New Delhi, Aug 27 (UNI) India will implement the Apostille Convention from Thursday, the External Affairs Ministry announced today.

The Apostille Convention, also known as the Hague Convention of October 5, 1961, abolishes the Requirement of Legalisation for Foreign Public Documents (Hague Apostille Convention) and facilitates the circulation of public documents executed in one State, which is party to the Convention, and to be produced in another State which is also party to the Convention.

It does so by replacing the cumbersome and often costly formalities of a full legalisation process with the mere issuance of an Apostille (also called Apostille Certificate.) The Hague Apostille Convention only applies between States parties. Apostilles can be issued by a Competent Authority designated by the State on whose territory the public document has been executed. The Permanent Bureau (Secretariat) of the Hague Conference does not issue Apostilles.

The External Affairs Ministry said it would start issuing Apostilles from August 29 at the CPV Division, Patiala House, and Apostille stickers would be issued on certificates including birth and death, affidavits, power of attorney, marriage certificate etc and educational documents like degrees, diplomas, matriculation and secondary level certificates.

Each Apostille sticker will cost Rs 50.

However, commercial documents are excluded from the purview of the Apostille Convention.

As per the procedure, all documents should be first authenticated by the designated agencies in the State from where the document has been issued.

In case of personal documents, the Home Department/General Administration Department of the concerned State are the designated authorities.

In case of educational documents, State Governments have opened Regional Authentication Centers (RACs) in States from where educational documents should first be attested.

Documents attested by these authorities then need to be presented to Ministry for issue of Apostilles.

UNI