Daily Briefing Current Affairs

Procedure Is the Shadow of Distrust: When Does a Ritual Stop Protecting the Truth?

The essay, published on 20 October 2026, revives the case for self-certification more than a decade after the Department of Administrative Reforms and Public Grievances urged governments in 2014 to drop affidavits and gazetted-officer attestation for routine services. An IAS officer's editorial argued that India must replace the expensive, colonial-era ritual of sworn affidavits with legally accountable, authenticated…