I suppose it shouuld be a simple matter to fill any application form, when there is information asked for and blank spaces are provided in which to enter the required information. It should be even simpler for highly intelligent persons like doctors with postgraduate qualification, considering their degree of education, command on English language, and basic cleverness owing to which they have landed up in this profession. What one supposes is not always true, even if it is based on hard logic. I see a large number of applications for new registration and renewal of old registrations. I come across so many errors in the applications, that I might be able to write a short essay on the subject. Owing to restraint of space, I will give just three unique examples.
I have seen an application that was without the signature of the applicant. I pointed that out to the medical officer of that civic ward.
“The form is submitted in duplicate” he said. The other copy will have the signature.” Then he proceeded to check the duplicate copy. While he was looking at it, I said “the duplicate copy is actually a photocopy of the original form. Hence it does not have the signature of the applicant too.” He finally found out that I was right. He took away the form for obtaining the much needed signature of the applicant.
I have found an application accompanied by an undertaking on a stamp paper. The contents of the undertaking were as per the PCPNDT Act requirements. The affidavit was notarized too I.e. there was a statement by an advocate and notary at the bottom of the affidavit that the person who had made that affidavit had signed in the presence of the notary, and the notary had signed below that statement and put his seal below his own signature. Unfortunately there was no signature of the applicant anywhere. It raises serious questions about the working of judiciary, besides shedding light on the shoddy working of doctors aspiring to work in the PCPNDT field. The concerned medical officer took away the application for necessary correction. He brought back the same affidavit the next time, bearing the signature of the applicant in the space which had been blank the first time. I had thought the fellow would have felt ashamed and made a new affidavit, and would have signed in the presence of the notary, who would then have notarized his signature. There was no such luck.
The third example is of an applicant whose signature on the application form and that on the affidavit were totally different. It did not take expertise of a bank teller to note the difference. They were as different as a cow differs in appearance from a cat. When I pointed out that to the medical officer who had brought that application, he said, “both of them might be his signatures.”
“I agree,” I said. “My signature for my bank account is different from the one I make on students’ journals. But when a person makes an application for a legal matter, and also makes an affidavit for the same legal matter, his signatures on those two documents must match. A minor difference is understandable. But these two signatures have zero similarity.” He took away the form for corrective measures without putting up further arguments.
