Following a green light from the Delhi High Court through two key verdicts, a tech platform for e-notarisation — electronically signed and notarised affidavits — to ease the tedious physical process is slowly gaining acceptance in legal circles.The platform, NotarEase, was co-founded in 2023 by advocate Karmanya Singh Sareen, who had worked on the concept for about two years. “In India, we know how notarisation takes place. Rarely do notaries see the client, and it is usually done by lawyers or clerks (on behalf of the clients),” said Sareen (27), who appeared in one of the two cases in the High Court where the use of e-notarisation was permitted.Legal documents are required to be signed in the presence of a notary, who is a legal practitioner empanelled by the Central and state governments, to ensure authenticity and prevent cases of forgery or coercion.According to Sareen, the idea for NotarEase came up during Covid when a client in Dubai had to file for a trademark in India.“Ultimately, the purpose of notarisation is to attest that a particular person was indeed the one who signed a document in front of the authorised notary. What we realised is, this can be done online, over a video call. The Delhi High Court, during Covid, was recording witness statements online during live court proceedings — so why can’t a notary notarise online, as there is no law per se that bars it. Ultimately, the notary is signing it, not writing the entire document, and a digital signature is valid as per the IT Act. We then worked with eMudhra and started building on it,” Sareen said.Sareen is an engineer from Imperial College London and an advocate specialising in IP. In the initial days of building NotarEase, he canvassed for help from a college batchmate to develop the software. “Filings in IP and trademark offices with e-notarised documents saw greater acceptance from the start, in light of most of their processes being online,” he said.Then came the two Delhi High Court verdicts, both delivered by Justice Sanjeev Narula.Story continues below this adIn February 2024, Sareen filed a case of trademark infringement on behalf of his Dubai client with the vakalatnama and documents attested through the new platform. Justice Narula accepted the digitally signed documents, making it the first instance of e-notarisation being allowed through a court order.A second endorsement came in May 2024, in a case filed by Singh and Singh Law Firm LLP, a legal practice originally founded in 1997 by Sareen’s parents, former Additional Solicitor General Maninder Singh and Delhi High Court judge Justice Pratibha M Singh — both of them later divested their partnership in the practice.The Delhi firm was suing a South Africa-based law firm with a similar name for trademark infringement. Represented by advocate Tanmaya Mehta, the Delhi firm told the court that its designated lawyer could not visit the office of the notary due to “pressing commitments” and instead used NotarEase’s virtual services.Justice Narula noted in the order that the court “is satisfied that Plaintiffs’ constituted attorney has electronically signed the notarised affidavits filed along with the petition and accompanying applications as well as the vakalatnama.”Story continues below this adNotarEase has showcased these two orders on its website, asserting that the platform is “approved by Courts,” and is “India’s first and only court accepted e-notarisation platform”.Advocate Ramni Taneja, a Central Government-appointed notary since 1999, endorsed the platform but also underlined a grey area. “The court has applied its mind and has accepted it with good reason. There appears to be a conjoint reading of the Information Technology Act with reference to electronic signatures, along with the BSA, which accepts electronic records with the presumption of being genuine, provided they are in accordance with existing law,” Taneja said.“However, I don’t know how Form 15, as stipulated under the Notaries Rule, will be maintained in case of electronic notarisation. We may need regulations to govern this aspect of the matter,” Taneja said, referring to the register that notaries have to maintain, which is signed by both parties involved in the notarisation process.According to Sareen, NotarEase has adequate security measures in place, “and the end-to-end process still requires a significant amount of manual steps that a human will be required to do”, minimising risks of impersonation or digital manipulation.“I am not guaranteeing a 100% secure system, but we have followed all systemic safeguards, and after bypassing a certain threshold, if a party still manages to deceive or use fraudulent means, the onus is on the party. We are extremely transparent with our processes and especially in a legally uncharted space, it is all the more incumbent on us to err on the side of caution, be thorough in our processes and records, even exempt from cases where we perceive even the slightest risk,” he said.Story continues below this adSareen also pointed to limitations in physical notarisation. “Tomorrow, if a court asks us if a document was signed by the notary, we have all the digital records to prove it. In case of physical notarisation, a notary may not be able to produce copies of all the documents that were notarised. There are instances where notarial registers have been lost, burnt, or mice have eaten into them. If e-notarisation is fundamentally integrated in court processes, it will make it more convenient, verifiable and accessible,” he said.NotarEase operates with a small team of five, including other co-founders COO Sahib Singh Dhillon and CTO Aufar Laksana. But its impact is visible — not just on advertising hoardings in the Delhi High Court premises.In August, a second firm started advertising similar services — a start-up called eNotary, co-founded by lawyers Prateek Lakra and Avi Kalra. “We are seeing greater acceptance of e-notarised documents across various courts in the country,” Lakra said.HOW NOTAREASE WORKS* Prepare document as per format illustrated through a guide and video on the website.* Upload document on portal, add signatory information — signatory must have NotarEase account authenticated through email ID.* Pay, book a slot through website.Story continues below this ad* In allotted slot, notary and client will join using Google Meet link. Notary will verify identity of client.* After notary initiates signatures, a link will be sent to verified email of user and digital signatures taken through eMudhra, which also keeps a record.* Once all parties have signed, document is signed by notary and considered notarised.