The Notaries Act, 1952, does not prescribe any time limit for seeking renewal of a certificate of practice, and the Government has no residuary discretion to refuse renewal.

1. Petitioner is a practising Advocate. He was appointed by the State Government as a Notary under the Notaries Act 1952 on 210. 1989. At the expiry of the period of three years from that date, his certificate of practice was renewed by a notification issued by the State Government dated 21. 1993. Petitioner applied for further renewal before the expiry of three years from 21. 1993. That application dated 112. 1995 was filed 51 days after 210. 1995. The rejection of that application and consequent removal of the petitioner from the list of Notaries by the Government’s notification dated 28. 1996 has been challenged by the petitioner in this petition.

2. The reason for removal as set out in the Notification is that petitioner had failed to apply for renewal, along with the Fee therefore before the expiry of three years from 210. 1995 and the explanation given by the petitioner for not applying before 210. 1995 was not satisfactory.

3. Learned Senior counsel for the petitioner contended that the impugned order is unsustainable. He contended that question of delay does not arise as neither the Act nor the rules prescribe the time limit within which the application should be filed.

4. Learned counsel relied on two decisions of the High Court of Kerala A. Gourishankar v. State , AIR 1991 Ker.225 and State of Kerala V.K.U. Narayana Poduval, AIR 1992 Ker. 152. It was held therein that the words “Shall” and “be entitled” in Section 5(2) of the Notaries Act, 1952, had been deliberately used by the Parliament to emphasise that there is no residuary discretion for the Government at the time of renewal; that section 5(2) of the Act is mandatory; that the renewal is automatic; and that the Government had no right to restrict the right of renewal only to two terms of three years each.

5. The relevant statutory provisions require to be noticed. Section 3 of the Act confers powers on the State and Central Governments to appoint as notaries” ... any legal practitioners or other persons who possess such qualifications as may be prescribed.” Rule 3 sets out the qualifications. Rule 3 reads as under: “Qualifications for appointment as notary: - No person shall be eligible for appointment as a notary unless on the date of application for such appointment:-

.(a) he is notary public appointed by the master of Faculties in England, or

.(b) he has been (Practising as) a legal practitioner for atleast ten years.

6. Section 5 of the Act provides for Register of Notaries and renewal of their certificates of practice. That Section reads as under:- Section 5. Entry of names in the Register and issue or renewal; of Certificate of practice. (i) Every notary who intends to practice as such shall, on payment to the Government appointing him of the prescribed fee, if any be entitled

.(a) to have his name entered in the Register maintained by that Government under Section 4 and

.(b) to a certificate authorising him to practice for a period of three years from the date on which the certificate is issued to him.

.(2) Every such notary who wishes to continue to practice after the expiry of the period for which his certificate of practice has been issued under this section shall, on application made to the Government appointing him and payment of the prescribed fee, if any, be entitled to have his certificate of practice renewed for three years at a time.

7. Section 10 of the Act provides for removal of notaries from the Register. That Section reads as under: -

Section 10. Removal of notaries from Register:-The Government appointing any notary may be order, remove from the Register maintained by it under Section 4 the name of the notary, if he

.(a) makes a request to that effect; or

.(b) has not paid any prescribed fee required to be paid by him; or

.(c) is an undischarged insolvent; or

.(d) has been found, upon inquiry in the prescribed manner, to be quilty of such pr of essional or other misconduct, as, in the opinion of the Gove