● <B>Are 100 notaries enough for Mauritius?</B>

Some would say it is, others would say it is too many. At any rate, there are actually 55 notaries practising in Mauritius even when the limit is (until the proclamation of the Notaries Bill 2008) 60. There are no applicants waiting to be granted authorisation to practise, said attorney general (AG) Rama Valayden in Parliament on Tuesday. The Chamber of Notaries is said not to be too happy about the government?s move. All the correspondence between the AG?s office and the Chamber of Notaries indicated that the notaries were not in favour of allowing more notaries to practice.

● <B>What made the government change its mind?</B>

The attorney general, Rama Valayden, didn?t volunteer any information regarding the reasons behind the government?s change of heart. What happened was that the government?s draft bill did not provide for a figure limiting the number of notaries in the first place. Then, because of the Chamber of Notaries? insistence, it went along with the notaries and proposed an amendment that added a "numerus clausus" to the bill; that puts a limit to the number of notaries allowed to practise. The figure was left unchanged - 60 but with a proviso that if needed, the AG in consultation with the Prime minister and the Chamber of Notaries, could appoint more notaries. Then as the debates made headway - and several MPs being of the opinion that the profession should be liberalised - the AG consulted with the PM and eventually announced at summing up that another amendment would be proposed to increase the number of notaries from 60 to 100.

● <B>Why does the Chamber of Notaries not want more notaries to practise ?</B>

They haven?t said but presumably because fewer notaries mean more work. The profession has historically been a closed one in Mauritius. In 1836, there were only 10 notaries allowed to practise in the island. The figure rose to 15 in 1942, then to 20 in 1957, then to 30 in 1969. Twenty years later, in 1989, there were only 35 notaries allowed to practise in Mauritius. In 1994, the government decided to increase the number to 60 and this was seen as a disruption in the profession and the number has remained unchanged since then. Usually the licence passed from father to son because of the limited number of notaries permitted to practise. This is probably why there was such an outcry against what is perceived to be a profession reserved to a happy few. MP Yatin Varma said it wasn?t ?fair? that many law students who had passed their exams, weren?t allowed to practise as notaries.

● <B>Why is there a limit to the number of notaries practising in Mauritius? </B>

It is a long established practice and has mainly to do with the transmission of notarial deeds and repertoires. When a notary ceases to be a notary either because he has passed away or because he has retired (even though one is a notary for life), the deeds and repertoires in his possession should pass to another notary. If they don?t, there is a severance in the transmission of deeds and repertoires and this is problematic because those are public documents whose existence are primordial to ascertain the history of a property, which becomes the subject matter of a transaction. The other reason for maintaining the numerus clausus is linked to the membership of the Chamber of Notaries to the Union Internationale du Notariat latin, which lays down as one of its conditions for membership, the requirement of a ?numerus clausus?.

● <B>What else does the new law provide for?</B>

The Notaries Bill 2008 repeals the Notaries Act of 1942 and provides for sanctions to be taken against those notaries who do not abide by a code of ethics to be determined by the Chamber of Notaries. Besides this, the bill also provides for the setting up of an association of notaries, the membership to which will be compulsory for notaries. This association will have the power to sanction notaries who give a bad name to the profession by acting illegally and to refer matters to the Supreme Court for further sanctions.

● <B>How lucrative is the notary business?</B>

The notaries? fee is provided for in the bill and can be changed (as anything else in the bill) by the attorney general by way of regulations. Notaries get a cut on the transactions they have witnessed. The new law provides for them to get a 2% cut on the first Rs 250,000 (subject to a minimum charge of Rs 1,000), 11\2% on the next Rs 500,000, 1% on the next Rs 1 million and 0.5% on the remainder. The first schedule also provides for notaries? fees on all the different types of transactions they witness and perform.