ASKWB

Friends,
I have not seen any G.O. to the effect that a Gazetted/ Gr-A officer cannot issue a character certificate in favour of his blood relation. However, he is supposed not to issue such certificate to show high standard of integrity. It will be clear from the following standard format of a character certificate required for govt. employment:
CHARACTER AND ANTECEDENT CERTIFICATE
Certified that Shri / Smt. / Kumari ………………………………………… son / wife / daughter of……………………… ……………. who is known to me for the last…..………………years, possess good moral character and has no antecedents which should render him/her unsuitable for Government employment.
Certified that Shri / Smt. / Kumari ……………………………… ….…….is not related to me.
Signature
Name in Block letters
Place:
Designation and Seal
Office Telephone No.
INSTRUCTIONS
1. To be signed or countersigned by a Gazetted Officer of the Government of India or a State Government or magistrate 1st Class or a Member of the Parliament or State Legislature.
2. Signatory’s designation may also be given in block letters.
3. Period, for which the vouching officer should have known the candidates, should be at least one Year.
4. The certificate should be of recent data.
Format of Character Certificate.jpg
See the certification “Shri / Smt. / Kumari ……………………………… ….…….is not related to me.” So, it is clear that a Gazetted/Gr-A officer cannot issue a character certificate in favour of relatives.
Now, there is no dispute that HM is the competent authority to issue character certificate of a student. That certificate MAINLY contains data regarding date of admission, date of leaving the school, year of passing M.P./ H.S. exam., registration no., Date of Birth etc. which are NOT at all related to his character. Though it is called and printed as “Character Certificate” yet it is basically considered as school leaving certificate. So, there is no objection if such certificate is issued by HM in favour of his son/daughter/relative who is a student of that school because none other than HM can provide the data. A Gazetted/ Gr-A officer has no role here.
Now. the point of contention is that a character certificate should always be a RECENT documentation. School certificate is not considered as a character certificate of a student who left school 5 years ago. School is not aware of his character once he leaves the school. In such a situation he is required to get a RECENT character certificate from competent authority (Authorised Govt. officer/ Panchayat Pradhan/ Municipal Councillor etc.). I have such experience when I was instructed to submit original copy of a fresh school leaving certificate (old one was not accepted) as well as character certificate (from local Municipal Councillor) at the time of police verification in relation to my 1st govt. employment.

There is difference between attestation and authentication. While authentication relates to the verification of the source documents and then to authenticate the copy/xerox copy as genuine, attestation does not require that. Attestation means the testimony that the document which was produced before the attesting with a copy of the same is the facsimile without going in to its genuinity. There are cases where self attestation is also allowed. As such I find no reason that why the parents who are authorised as per requirement of attestation can not attest the documents of their wards/children?