NANDKISHOR GANGARAM DHUDKEKAR Vs. UNION OF INDIA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) By this writ petition under Article 226 of the Constitution of India, the petitioner seeks consideration of his application at Annexure-A for being appointed as Notary under the provisions of the Notaries Act, 1952. He has also contended that the respondents must be directed to frame appropriate policy or guidelines for making selection of candidates for being appointed as a Notary.

(2.) The petitioner states that on 11/6/2003, he submitted an application for being appointed as a Notary for Malegaon area in which he is practicing as Advocate. The petitioner contends that said application is pending without any consideration even today. By inviting attention to the facts pleaded, the argument is, in the absence of any fixed policy or guidelines regulating such appointment the respondents are resorting to pick and choose. Persons who have applied subsequently have been appointed in Nagpur region. Our attention has also been invited to the provisions of the Notaries Act, 1952 and the Notaries Rules, 1956 thereunder to argue that there are no guidelines or norms either in the Act or in the Rules to control a very wide discretion available to the respondents in the matter.

(3.) In this background we have heard learned Advocate Shri Uday Dastane for petitioner and learned Advocate Shri R.S. Sundaram for respondents.