Excelsior Correspondent
JAMMU, Apr 2: After soft-paddling on the issue for quite long time, the State Government has finally implemented the self-attestation of documents policy and come up with the revised mechanism to be followed by various Government departments, local bodies, Panchayati Raj Institutions, Boards, Corporations and Public Sector Undertakings.
The dilly-dallying approach on identifying services for self-attestation despite approval to the policy by the Governor, N N Vohra was exclusively highlighted by EXCELSIOR in its edition dated March 26, 2016. Accordingly, the Governor’s Administration issued directions for expeditious exercise by the relevant departments and even Chief Secretary B R Sharma convened meetings with the Administrative Secretaries.
Finally, the General Administration Department, as per the decision taken by State Administrative Council, has issued order No.298 regarding implementation of self-attestation of documents policy. Till date, attested copies of various documents were being sought from persons seeking employment in Government departments, local bodies, Panchayati Raj Institutions, Boards, Corporations and Public Sector Undertakings; seeking admission in educational institutions in the State and seeking services/benefits under various State/Central Government Schemes.
As this process was consuming a lot of time and energy of the persons concerned, a need was felt for simplification of the procedure for verification of documents/testimonials. Now, the Government has replaced the existing system of seeking attestation of the documents by the Gazetted Officers with self attestation of these documents by the person himself.
The revised mechanism in relation to method of attestation of documents will be applicable in all cases except where attestation of specific authority is required under any law or statutory rule in force or where proof of being a permanent resident of the State is to be furnished/produced.
Now, the applicants can submit self-attested copies of documents that are required to be attached/appended to the original applications for seeking employment in Government departments, local bodies, Panchayati Raj Institutions, Boards, Corporations and Public Sector Undertakings, admission in educational institutions in the State and for seeking services/benefits under various State/Central Government schemes.
The Education Department has been asked to issue directions to all educational institutions located in the State for accepting self-attested copies of documents/testimonials from the applicants or guardians of the students at the time of submission of applications for admission. “Original documents shall be called from the finally admitted students only to carry out verification of the same”, the GAD said in the order.
The Public Service Commission and Service Selection Board and all other selection/recruiting agencies have also been asked to accept self-attested copies of documents from the candidates applying for selection/recruitment. The original certificates/documents will have to be furnished at the time of finalizing the selection list for verification purpose.
In order to ensure that self-attestation of documents policy is not misused, stringent provision has been kept in the revised mechanism, which states that individuals furnishing wrong information or filing false or fabricated certificates or documents will be liable to penal action as warranted under law. All the public authorities while receiving the self-attested documents will draw the attention of the individuals towards the relevant provisions of the Jammu and Kashmir State Ranbir Penal Code.
As per Section 177 of RPC, anybody furnishing false information shall be punished with simple imprisonment for a term that may extend to six months or with fine that may extend to Rs 1000 or with both. Similarly, Section 465 states that whosoever commits forgery shall be punished with imprisonment of either description for a term which may extend to two years or with fine or with both.
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