Why an advocate is also a Notary
This is not a coincidence of business. Under section 3 of the Notaries Act, 1952 read with Rule 3 of the Notaries Rules, 1956, notaries are appointed from among advocates of at least ten years' standing (seven years for women, for SC, ST and OBC applicants, and — since a 2021 amendment — for a person with a benchmark disability under the Rights of Persons with Disabilities Act, 2016). Rule 3 also admits certain non-advocates, such as members of the Indian Legal Service and persons with ten years in judicial service. For an advocate applying on Form I, Rule 4 requires the application to be routed through the District Judge or the Presiding Officer of the court where the applicant practises. The statutory scheme presupposes a practising advocate. Court practice and notaryship are meant to run together.
For you, the practical effect is that the person drafting your document is the person who has seen what happens to documents like it in court.
Matters handled
- Civil suits — recovery of money, specific performance of an agreement to sell, injunctions, declaration and possession, damages.
- Property and title disputes — partition suits between co-owners and co-heirs, disputes over a banakhat where possession was given, boundary and encroachment matters, challenges to mutation entries, and suits arising from defective or unregistered documents.
- Landlord and tenant — eviction, arrears of rent, possession, and disputes arising out of rent agreements and leave-and-licence arrangements.
- Cheque bounce — section 138, Negotiable Instruments Act, 1881. High volume, and unforgiving on timing. The cheque must be presented within six months of its date or within its period of validity, whichever is earlier — and since the Reserve Bank capped cheque validity at three months in 2012, in practice that means three months. The demand notice must then go within 30 days of receiving the bank's intimation of dishonour; the drawer has 15 days to pay; and the complaint must be filed within one month of that period expiring, though a court may condone delay for sufficient cause. A defective notice ends the complaint before it starts. Drafted and prosecuted here.
- Criminal matters — bail, complaints, quashing, trial and appeal.
- Matrimonial and family — mutual consent divorce under section 13B of the Hindu Marriage Act, 1955 and section 28 of the Special Marriage Act, 1954; contested divorce; maintenance; custody; guardianship applications under the Guardians and Wards Act, 1890; and domestic violence proceedings.
- Succession — succession certificate petitions under sections 370 to 390 of the Indian Succession Act, 1925 for a deceased's debts and securities; probate and letters of administration where a will is likely to be contested; and heirship declarations.
- Consumer matters — complaints before the District and State Commissions.
- Appeals and revisions from the above.
Section 213 of the Indian Succession Act, 1925 — which barred an executor or legatee from establishing a right in court without probate or letters of administration in certain cases — was omitted by the Repealing and Amending Act, 2025 (Act 37 of 2025), assented on 20 December 2025. The statutory bar is therefore gone. Two cautions: the amendment is recent and not yet tested in court, and accrued rights and pending proceedings are saved. In any event section 213 never applied to Vadodara — its bar was confined to the classes of will covered by section 57(a) and (b). Probate remains available, and is still worth obtaining where a will is likely to be challenged or where an authority insists on it in practice.
How we take instructions
Bring the papers, all of them, including the ones that are unhelpful. The most common cause of a case going badly is a document the client did not mention because they thought it did not matter. An honest assessment of the strength of a matter, and of what it will realistically cost and how long it will realistically take, comes at the first meeting rather than after money has been spent.
Some matters should not be filed. Where a claim is time-barred, where the document you are relying on was never registered and therefore cannot be received in evidence of the transaction under section 49 of the Registration Act, 1908, or where the realistic recovery is less than the cost of recovering it — you will be told. A settlement reached quickly is very often worth more than a decree obtained slowly.