Government proclaims a new way to digitally attest documents

The Government recently made an announcement regarding adding a service to digitize the process of attestation of documents. The move will be a step to ease the procedure for those who are going abroad so that they are spared the trouble of visiting government offices for the purpose.

A proposal of the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) "e-Sanad" along with two other ministries — will at first be hosting school leaving certificates with the help of Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE). In subsequent phases, the portal will also swarm documents from central universities.

‘Parinaam Manjusha’, the CBSE depository of all the important documents like mark sheets and migrations certificates, has now been included with e-Sanad for this purpose. External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj said that she will work together with the ministries of Human Resource Development (HRD) and Electronics and Information Technology in order to perform the task, which was close to her heart.

“Every individual who goes abroad needs to get tens of certificates attested… There was such corruption that if anyone in Bangalore (Bengaluru) wanted to get his documents attested in Delhi to go abroad, there would be touts to do this for him for money,” Swaraj addressed media. Even rising the number of centres where one could get his certificates attested was not enough, Swaraj said, adding that she wanted “a solution under which no one was physically required to go to the office and carry papers”.

HRD Minister Prakash Javadekar appriciated the attempt, saying he too had been a victim of red-tapism. Minister of Electronics and Information Technology Ravi Shankar Prasad hailed the shift as a step towards making India digital. About the formalities for passport, Swaraj said there were rules which were “impractical, obsolete, unnecessary and anachronistic”. She went on mentioning that since the process since the simplification, the number for passport applications had amplified by 30 percent.

To this, the CBSE Chairman R.K. Chaturvedi said that the people seeking certificates through e-Sanad for 2016 would be able to access them free of cost. But, in order to get the older certificates, one has to pay Rs 100. He also mentioned that said e-Sanad would be be supportive even for employers, who would be able to bear out the possible employees’ documents through it.