PANAJI: The Goa government has notified a Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) for the pre-authentication of personal, commercial and educational documents that are intended for use abroad before they are submitted to the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) for Apostille or Attestation.
According to a notification issued by the Home Department on Wednesday, the move follows the Ministry of External Affairs authorising the Regional Passport Officer (RPO), Goa, to issue Apostilles on public documents. As India is a signatory to the Hague Apostille Convention, 1961, an Apostille certificate eliminates the need for further legalisation of documents in member countries.
To ensure the authenticity and genuineness of documents submitted for Apostille or Attestation, the MEA requires all documents to be pre-authenticated by designated Documents Issuing Authorities (DIAs) in the respective States and Union Territories.
In Goa, the Director of Education has been designated as the DIA for educational documents up to the Higher Secondary School Certificate (HSSC) level. The Director of Technical Education will handle educational documents issued by professional colleges and technical institutions affiliated with Goa University or the Goa Board of Technical Education. The Director of Higher Education has been authorised to pre-authenticate educational documents issued by non-professional colleges affiliated with Goa University, while the Director of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship will oversee documents issued by institutions under its jurisdiction. The Under Secretary (Home-II) has been designated as the authority for all personal and commercial documents.
The SOP also mandates that the signatures of all officers authorised to issue documents must be registered with the respective DIAs by their departments, along with details of the types of documents they are authorised to sign. The DIAs will verify and attest these signatures before the documents are processed further.
Notaries appointed under the Notaries Act, 1952, must also register their signatures with the DIAs. However, only documents that a notary is legally authorised to execute, such as affidavits, declarations, agreements and powers of attorney, will be eligible for pre-authentication.
The notification further states that canonical documents signed by the Notary based at the Paco-Patriarchal, Archbishop's House, Altinho, Panaji, may also be pre-authenticated, provided the notary's signature has been registered with the concerned DIA.
The government has stated that DIAs will, as far as possible, pre-authenticate original documents or certified copies issued by government authorities. In exceptional cases where certified copies are unavailable, the DIA may inspect the original document and pre-authenticate its photocopy.
After pre-authentication is completed, applicants can submit their documents to the MEA's outsourced service providers in Goa for Apostille or MEA Attestation.
