On the morning of April 9, the National Assembly discussed in groups about the draft Law amending and supplementing a number of articles of the Law on Notarization.
National Assembly Delegate Vu Van Tien (Hai Phong Delegation) said that the Law on Notarization No. 46/2024/QH15 takes effect from July 1, 2025. Point d, Clause 1, Article 18 stipulates "Rights and obligations of notaries": Requesting individuals, agencies, and organizations involved to provide information and documents, and to exploit and use information from databases according to legal regulations to carry out notarization.
According to the delegate, the law has affirmed that notarization is a public service, notaries are appointed by the Minister of Justice. And currently, according to the draft amended law, notaries will be appointed by the Chairman of the Provincial People's Committee to carry out notarization.
Notaries have legal obligations, including the obligation to be responsible before the law and before the notary requester for the notarized document they perform. This content is stipulated in point 1, clause 2, Article 18.
On the other hand, Article 45 stipulates that notarization is time-limited, usually 2 working days; if the transaction has complex content, it does not exceed 10 working days.
The delegate proposed that it is necessary to clearly stipulate the responsibilities of individuals, agencies, and organizations involved in providing information to answer, and answer for a limited time.
This both ensures that the rights of notaries are fully exercised, and ensures the time limit for resolving notarization requests as prescribed by law, and at the same time ensures the rights of participants in transactions," said delegate Vu Van Tien.
Accordingly, the Hai Phong Delegation delegate proposed to amend point d, clause 1, Article 18 as follows: Notaries directly or through notary practice organizations request relevant individuals, agencies, and organizations to provide information and documents; to exploit and use information from databases in accordance with legal regulations to carry out notarization.
Individuals, agencies, and organizations involved are responsible for providing information and documents as requested by notaries or notary practice organizations within 3 or 5 working days from the date of receipt of the request.
Also contributing opinions on this draft law, delegate Lo Thi Luyen - Deputy Head of the National Assembly Delegation in charge of Dien Bien province - contributed opinions on the storage of notarized records.
Clause 3, Article 68 stipulates: "The maximum time limit for providing the original notarized document is 10 working days from the date of handover..." to ensure feasibility in procedural activities. However, the 10-working day time contradicts the Law on Judicial Inspection (Clause 2, Article 30), allowing a maximum inspection time of 4 months for particularly complex cases.
The delegate proposed that the drafting agency study, amend, and supplement in the direction of: "The maximum time limit for providing the original notarized document is 10 working days, in cases where the case is particularly complex, the maximum time limit for providing the original notarized document is 4 months from the date of handover..." to be consistent with the Law on Judicial Inspection.
The delegate also agreed with the policy of stipulating that notaries or notaries can exploit data on a basis of sufficiently qualified data to carry out notarization requests.
However, some opinions are concerned, proposing to specifically stipulate the legal responsibilities of notaries and the managing agency of the database if the information in the database is incorrect, leading to incorrect notarized documents.
In this case, is the responsibility to the database management agency or the notary public? It is proposed to supplement this regulation, creating favorable conditions in the process of organization and implementation," the delegate said.
