MEA is the sole jurisdiction to issue Apostille Stamp to the India issued Certificate. Apostille documents are valid only in The Hague Convention Countries. The Hague Convention 1961 ended the requirement of repeated Legalization of foreign public documents by the governments of HCCH member countries.

Certificate Apostille is required because A Hague convention policy demands a certificate with an Apostille stamp to use the document in HCCH Members Countries. It is a part of security. This process will certify the legitimacy of Certificate for Work, Education, Export your goods or establish a business in Hague Member Countries. With this Apostille stamp, the Document becomes right, genuine, and recognised by the MEA of HCCH Members Countries. Holding apostille on a Certificate means there is no requirement for any further attestation from their Embassy.

For Apostille in India, As the Ministry of External Affairs is not accepting documents directly from the individual/applicant, Certificates for Apostille or Attestation by MEA are to be submitted and collected from the four designated outsourced agencies. W.e.f. January 01 2019, Apostille Attestation services have been decentralised to Branch Secretariats/RPOs in 15 cities. Apostille services available in Mumbai, New Delhi, Pune, Ahmedabad, Bangalore, Hyderabad, Bhopal, Chennai, Kolkata, Chandigarh, Goa, Cochin, Guwahati, Lucknow, Raipur, Surat, Vadodara, Rajkot, Indore, Patna and Thiruvananthapuram.  

The Indian apostille is a sticker stamp of square shape which itself is a printed form consisting of 11 standard fields. On the top is the text APOSTILLE, under which the text Convention de La Haye du 5 October 1961 (English: Hague Convention of 5 October 1961) is placed. The fields contain the following important information, and Apostille certificate will be placed on the document's backside.

The HCCH 85 Members countries and another some countries are accepting Apostille Document. 

The Hague Convention was signed on 5th of October, 1961 in the town of Luxembourg. However, it only became effective from 14th of January, 1965. The Hague Convention Abolishing the Requirement of Legalization for Foreign Public Documents. So no required diplomatic (Embassy/Consulate) legalization of certificates for the legal communication among HCCH member countries of the Hague convention.  The Certificates only need to be stamped with an “apostille” by the Ministry of External Affairs.