Report No. 38
65. Section 21(1)(b)-Certificate of posting.-
We have received a suggestion1 to insert a provision regarding the maintenance of a register in the Post Office for articles sent under a certificate of posting. This would unnecessarily increase work, for which the fee charged would not be commensurate. A change in the law is not needed. If unscrupulous persons succeed in getting a certificate without actually posting a letter (as stated in the suggestion), the proper remedy would be to see that the letter is posted before the certificate is issued. In fact, the rules2 do provide that the certificate shall be presented to the officer on duty at the post office alongwith the article to be posted.
1. S. No. 108 (A D.I.G. Police).
2. Rule 195(1), Indian Post Office Rules, 1933.
66. With reference to articles sent under certificate of posting, a State Government has, in its comment on the draft Report, stated1:-
"In the opinion of this Government, the Rule referred to (Rule 195) constitutes no safeguard at all, because the guarantee of a certificate of posting is, where it is abused, abused in collusion with the officer who stamps the postal seal on the certificate. If he is a colluding party, he cannot be depended on to insist on strict compliance with the Rule. A register in which all articles sent under a certificate of posting would be entered serially and in a chronological order would, on the other hand, make such abuse almost impossible, because tampering with such a register or making fictitious entries in it, would not be easy. Nor can it be said that the work of maintaining such a register will be unduly heavy."
We have carefully considered the point raised in the comment. But we think that no such change is needed.
Even if it were practicable to provide for a register of articles posted under certificate, that cannot constitute a safeguard against collusion. An entry can be made fictitiously even in the register which is suggested in the comment under consideration.
1. S. No. 170 (Suggestion of a State Government).
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