In a recent tender of BPCL for transportation of bulk POL product, some bidders are attested their Tank Lorry document copies with Notary and some with the Gazetted Officer.But in the tender guidelines it is written " Copies of Registration Certificate,Certificate of Fitness, PESO License etc,enclosed along with the Tender Form shall be attested by a Gazette Officer". Question is whose bid will be legally qualified and reference of Laws in this context
There is something like "Gazette", a publication issued by both the Central Government and the State Government in different States. The Gazette is issued in the name of the President of India, or the Governor of the respective State. There are certain catagories of Civil Servants introduced by the Government and that the obligations of those civil servants are "pre-determined" including their power, authority and jurisdiction. These are all Gazetted officers, who have authority to attest the certificates or such other documents.
However, the Notaries Act authorizes to attest the documents, who have been approved, appointed and recognized as notary under the Scheme of the Act. But again, although such notary public derive the authority under law to attest cannot be termed as "Gazetted officers". There is again a distinction between the Notary public and a gazetted officer. Such statutory authority is given to the Notary Public to disburden the public administration and to serve the public at large. The authenticity or veracity is to be proved by the petitioner when challenged.
For more information on this subject, please read the following too:
Gazetted officer does not have to be an employee of the govt, the only requirement for being a gazetted officer is that one should be an individual official in whom the govt vests power to perform official acts and duties and his service charges are fixed by the govt which implies his right of earning his pay in accordance with the services rendered by him. More over the official seal and signatures of authorized notaries are contained in all relevant gazettes which are sent by the govt to all govt offices in India and the Indian High Commissions abroad. which is not the case in respect of other officials who are termed as gazetted officers such as those in govt jobs even though at the lower level. Thus notary publics and notary publics who are also registered advocates are Gazetted Officers and their acts are more authentic as they can easily be checked and verified from the registration numbers , their seals and their signatures from the web net, the Gazette of India or from the Ministry of Law and Justice of The government of India.