e-Sanad is a project aimed at online submission/verification of documents with an ultimate object to extend contact less, cashless, faceless and paperless document attestation service for apostille and normal attestation to applicants in India (to be extended to applicants abroad in a phased manner). It is designed and developed by NIC.

Any type of document viz personal, educational or commercial can be authenticated/apostilled using e-Sanad. The document should be available in the digital repository for getting attestation/apostille through e-Sanad.

e-Sanad is currently operational in five passport offices and in Attestation Section, CPV Division, Ministry of External Affairs, New Delhi. With further decentralization of attestation related work to other locations, it is going to be extended to entire country very soon.

To begin with, the e-Sanad, will start with CBSE depository (for years 2014 & onwards) and verification of the CBSE documents would be done online. As regards its implementation/integration with States/UTs, the matter is being taken up with Telengana State, as a pilot project and others will be included in a phased manner.

The project is being implemented by NIC in coordination with CBSE, States/UTs and the Ministry of External Affairs in a phased manner. Initially only those Document Issuing Authorities(DIAs), that have digital depository of their documents(such as CBSE), are taken on board . This service would be extended to other DIAs in phased manner as and when they are capable to providing digital depository of documents issued by them.

An Apostille is a certificate that authenticates the origin of a public document (e.g., a birth, marriage or death certificate, a judgment, an extract of a register or a notarial attestation). The Model Apostille Certificate is reproduced at the beginning of this brochure. Apostilles can only be issued for documents issued in one country party to the Apostille Convention and that are to be used in another country which is also a party to the Convention.

You will need an Apostille if all of the following apply:

• The country where the document was issued is party to the Apostille Convention; and
• The country in which the document is to be used is party to the Apostille Convention; and
• The law of the country where the document wasissued considers it to be a public document; and
• The country in which the document is to be used requires an Apostille in order to recognise it as a foreign public document.

An Apostille may never be used for the recognition of a document in the country here that document was issued – Apostilles are strictly for the use of public documents abroad!

An Apostille may not be required if the laws, regulations, or practice in force in the country where the public document is to be used have abolished or simplified the requirement of an Apostille, or have exempted the document from any legalisation requirement. Such simplification or exemption may also result from a treaty or other agreement that is in force between the country where the public document is to be used and the country that issued it (e.g., some other Hague Conventions exempt documents from legalisation or any analogous formality, including an Apostille).

If you have any doubts, you should ask the intended recipient of your document whether an Apostille is necessary in your particular case.

The Apostille Convention only applies if both the country where the public document was issued and the country where the public document is to be used are parties to the Convention. A comprehensive and updated list of the countries where the Apostille Convention applies, or will soon apply, is available in the Apostille Section of the Hague Conference website – look for the link entitled Status table of the Apostille Convention.

The Status table of the Apostille Convention has two parts: the first part lists countries that have joined the Apostille Convention and are also Members of the Hague Conference (i.e., the Organisation that developed the Convention); the second part lists countries that have joined the Apostille Convention but are not Members of the Hague Conference. In other words, a country does not need to be a Member of the Hague Conference to be party to the Apostille Convention.

When checking the Status table of the Apostille Convention, always keep the following in mind:

• Check if both the country where the public document was issued and the country where the document is to be used are listed in either part of the Status table.
• It does not matter whether a country appears in the first or the second part of the Status table – the Convention applies equally to Members and non-Members of the Organisation.
• Check the date of entry into force of the Convention for both countries. Look for the column entitled ‘EIF’ – only after that date can the relevant country issue and receive Apostilles.
• There are different ways for a country to become a party to the Convention (ratification, accession, succession or continuation), but these differences have no impact on how the Convention operates in a country.
• If one of the countries has acceded to the Convention, check that the other country has not objected to that accession; to find out, see the column entitled ‘Type’ next to the acceding country’s name and check if there is a link entitled ‘A**’ – if so, click on it and check whether the other country is listed.
• Check whether the Convention applies to the entire territory of a country or only to parts of it; to find out, see if there is a link in the columns entitled ‘Ext’ and ‘Res/D/N’ – if so, click on it and read the relevant information.

If your public document was issued or is to be used in a country where the Apostille Convention does not apply, you should contact the Embassy or a Consulate of the country where you intend to use the document in order to find out what your options are. The Permanent Bureau (Secretariat) of the Hague Conference does not provide assistance in such cases.

The Convention only applies to public documents. Whether or not a document is a public document is determined by the law of the country in which the document was issued. Countries typically apply the Convention to a wide variety of documents. Most Apostilles are issued for documents of an administrative nature, including birth, marriage and death certificates; documents emanating from an authority or an official connected with a court, tribunal or commission; extracts from commercial registers and other registers; patents; notarial acts and notarial attestations (acknowledgments) of signatures; school, university and other academic diplomas issued by public institutions. The Apostille Convention does not apply to documents executed by diplomatic or consular agents. The Convention also excludes from its scope certain administrative documents related to commercial or customs operations.

Applicant can, however, submit and collect documents directly at the four under-mentioned Branch Secretariats of the Ministry of External Affairs. They also Attest/ Apostille documents in addition to MEA

Note: W.e.f. October 13, 2016, Attestation/ Apostille services have been decentralized to RPOs in Bangalore, Chandigarh, Goa, Mumbai and Trivandrum. The contact details of these RPOs and the collection centres of the four service providers in these five cities (i.e. Bangalore, Chandigarh, Goa, Mumbai and Trivandrum) can be seen here ––Click here. NORKA ROOTS, a public sector company under the Department of Non-Resident Keralite Affairs, Government of Kerala is authorized to submit documents for Attestation/Apostille by RPO, Trivandrum.

MEA: A fee of Rs. 50/- is payable for Apostille of each document. (W.e.f 21 December 2016, payment by means of postal orders has been discontinued.) Normal Attestation is done free of cost.

Outsourced agencies: As the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) is not accepting documents directly from the applicant/individual, all documents for the purpose of Attestation/ Apostille by MEA are to be submitted and collected from the four designated outsourced agencies. The fee chargeable by the outsourced agencies per document for its collection and delivery for Apostille/normal attestation by MEA will be Rs.22/- (Personal document), Rs.18/- (Educational document) and Rs.16/- (Commercial document).

No. An Annex to the Apostille Convention provides a Model Apostille Certificate (which is reproduced at the beginning of this brochure). Apostilles should conform as closely as possible to this Model Certificate.

In particular, an Apostille must:

• be identified as an Apostille; and
• include the short version of the French title of the Convention (Convention de La Haye du 5 octobre 1961); and
• include a box with the 10 numbered standard informational items.

An Apostille may also provide additional information. For example, an Apostille may:

• provide extra information about the public document to which it relates;
• recall the limited effect of an Apostille (i.e., that it only certifies the origin of the public document to which it relates);
• provide a web-address (URL) of a register where the origin of the Apostille may be verified; or
• specify that the Apostille is not to be used in the country that issued it.

However, such additional information must be outside the box that holds the 10 numbered standard informational items.

An Apostille must be placed directly on the public document itself or on a separate attached page (called an allonge). Apostilles may be affixed by various means, including rubber stamps, self-adhesive stickers, impressed seals, etc. If an Apostille is placed on an allonge, the latter can be attached to the underlying public document by a variety of means, including glue, grommets, staples, ribbons, wax seals, etc. While all of these means are acceptable under the Convention, Competent Authorities are encouraged to use more secure methods of affixation so as to safeguard the integrity of the Apostille.

Failure to affix an Apostille in a particular manner is not a basis for refusing the Apostille.

An Apostille only certifies the origin of the public document to which it relates: it certifies the authenticity of the signature or seal of the person or authority that signed or sealed the public document and the capacity in which this was done. An Apostille does not certify the content of the public document to which it relates.Apostilles are not grants of authority and do not give any additional weight to the content of underlying documents. An Apostille may never be used for the recognition of a document in the country where that document was issued – Apostilles are strictly for use of public documents abroad. It is up to the country where the Apostille is to be used to decide how much weight to give to the underlying public document.

No. An Apostille issued by the relevant Competent Authority is all that is required to establish that a signature or seal on a public document is genuine and to establish the capacity of the person or authority that signed or sealed the public document.

The e-Register of Apostillie is available on e-Sanad portal at e-Register. The Competent Authority is required to keep a register in which it records the date and number of every Apostille it issues, as well as information relating to the person or authority that signed or sealed the underlying public document. Recipients may contact the Competent Authority identified on the Apostille and ask whether the information on the Apostille corresponds with the information in the register. In order to verify a particular Apostille, recipients may access the online electronic Register (e-Register). The e-Registers allow for easy online queries to verify the origin of an Apostille without Competent Authorities having to answer these queries individually by phone, e-mail or otherwise.

Apostilles issued in accordance with the requirements of the Convention must be recognised in the country where they are to be used. Apostilles may only be rejected if and when:

• their origin cannot be verified (i.e., if and when the particulars on the Apostille do not correspond with those in the register kept by the Competent Authority that allegedly issued the Apostille); or
• their formal elements differ radically from the Model Certificate annexed to the Convention.

While an Apostille should conform as closely as possible to the Model Certificate annexed to the Convention, in practice Apostilles issued by different Competent Authorities vary in design, size and colour as well as in any additional elements that may be included on the Certificate. Such variations in appearance are not a basis for refusal of an Apostille. Failure to affix an Apostille to the public document in a particular manner is not a basis for refusing the Apostille. The mere fact that an Apostille has been affixed by a method that differs from the method(s) employed by the country where it is to be used is not a reason for the rejection of the Apostille. Additional text on an Apostille outside the box with the 10 numbered standard informational items is not a basis for rejection of an Apostille. ‘Apostille Certificates’ issued by countries that are not party to the Convention must be rejected in all other States as being contrary to the Convention.

The Convention does allow Competent Authorities to issue Apostilles in electronic form (e-Apostilles) and to maintain electronic registers of Apostilles (e-Registers). Ministry of External Affair is in process of developing and implementing e-Apostilles. However, the e-Register of Apostillie is available on e-Sanad portal at e-Register