PRITPAL SINGH Vs. UNION OF INDIA AND OTHERS

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The petitioner is an Advocate by profession, who had been working as a Notary at Rajpura. His license is governed by the Notaries Act,1952 (for short,'the Act') and The Notaries Rules, 1956 ('the Rules'). The license is granted for five years which was to expire on 01.11.2015. The petitioner applied for renewal of the license on 14.7.2015 i.e. three months prior to its expiry. However, as per Rule 8 B of the Rules, the petitioner was required to apply before six months of the period of validity of the earlier period.

(2.) Learned counsel for the petitioner has argued that the petitioner was not aware of the amendment in the Rules, therefore, he had applied within three months as per the un-amended Rules. In this regard, he has For Subsequent orders see LPA-190-2016 referred to an information derived from the internet, wherein period of three months is still mentioned, dehors the fact that Rule 8 B has already been amended and the period has been changed from three months to six months. It is submitted that as per the proviso to Rule 8 B, the appropriate Government, in a particular case, after taking into consideration the reasons given in the application, can relax the condition of submission of application. According to the petitioner, he has given reason in his affidavit Annexure P-5 that he was not aware of the period of renewal of six months, therefore, the application could not be filed.

(3.) I have heard learned counsel for the petitioner and after examining the record, am of the considered opinion that there is no error in the order dated 08.12.2015 because ignorance of law that too by an Advocate of the relevant amendment in the Rules, is no excuse.