PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES 757
Public which are outside the Indian. Negotiable Instruments Act are appointed by authorities in Great Britain.
The history of this institution is probably interesting. Originally, the appointment of the Notary Public all over England and perhaps even Europe was made by the Pope. It was an ecclesiastical office and the function of that officer was to deal with eccelesiastical matters, that is to say, if a dispute arose as to the seating arrangement in a particular Church, the dispute was decided by the Notary Public. If a question arose as to whether a person who had died was entitled to a public burial or whether he was to be doomed to what was called a private burial in some unrecognised part of the Church, that matter was also decided by the Notaries Public. Later on, certain commercial duties were also attached to the Notaries Public under which they performed the duties of noting, protesting, or preparing or noting honour or dishonour about these transactions. When the Protestant Revolution took place, the authority of the Pope so far as Great Britain was concerned ended, and it was assumed by the British King and the British King transferred the jurisdiction that he had acquired from the Pope in the matter of the appointment of the Notaries Public to the Archbishop of Canterbury who also became his officer, because under the Protestant Revolution, the State became supreme as against the Church and all the officers of the Church became the officers of the State. The Archbishop had attached to him what was called a Court of Faculty, an officer who dealt with the Church matters to which I have already made some reference and in England all the Notaries Public were appointed by what was called the Court of Faculty under the superintendence of the Archbishop of Centerbury. That body also continued to appoint Notaries Public in India. All that we did was that we cut out a little portion from the authority of the Court of Faculty in England which had acquird this legal jurisdiction to appoint Notaries so far as the Negotiable Instruments Act was concerned.
The position today in India therefore is that a group of Notaries who deal with documents under the Negotiable Instruments Act are appointed by the Government of India