The Notary Profession
Notaries are ministerial officers (officiers ministériels) entrusted by the State with the authority to draw up authentic legal instruments. . They may act in all areas of legal practice, with the exception of litigation.
Authentication is the process by which notarial deeds are endowed with probative and enforceable force, conferring upon them the authority of res judicata in the same manner as a court decision.
As a legal professional, a notary advises the parties, drafts agreements, and may be appointed to perform expert advisory services. Notaries’ fees are set by the Notaries Act and calculated in tiers based on the value of the transaction, using a sliding scale.
Notaries can assist with the drafting of real estate documents (promises of sale, deeds of sale, co-ownership regulations, mortgage security instruments), as well as business documents (company constitutions, shareholders’ agreements, share transfer agreements), and even with the alternative dispute resolution procedures, including conciliation, mediation and arbitration.
Partner
Founder of the Office Notarial de l'Isle-de-France (Law Firm)
Ashvin Krishna Dwarka, Notary
Ashvin Krishna Dwarka is the founding partner of the Office Notarial de l’Isle-de-France (Law Firm). He is a notary practising in the Republic of Mauritius, admitted as a law practitioner under the Law Practitioners Act 1984.
In Mauritius, Mr Dwarka primarily advises on residential and commercial real estate development projects, structured finance transactions and corporate matters.
His international practice focuses on private international law, corporate law, international taxation and wealth planning, as well as the law of trusts and fiducies. He also advises management companies and regulated investment funds. »
Education & experience
Mr Ashvin Krishna Dwarka holds a Bachelor of Laws (LL.B.) in English law and a Master of Laws (LL.M. Tax) in international tax law from the London School of Economics, as well as a Master’s degree (D.E.S.S.) in notarial law from the University Paris I Panthéon – Sorbonne.
Mr Dwarka worked as an associate in the real estate and finance department at Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer in Paris for five years before taking over the practice of Maître Ng Yan Hing (a notary office established in 1995) in Mauritius.
Conferences & Legal doctrine
Mr Dwarka regularly speaks at conferences organised by the Society of Trust and Estate Practitioners (STEP) in the Indian Ocean region, as well as at conferences organised annually by the International Fiscal Association (IFA) between 2008 and 2019. He served as national rapporteur at the 23rd and 24th Pan-African Conferences of Notaries (Mauritius and Cameroon) and at the Lausanne seminar on international succession law.
He represented the Mauritian notarial profession at the 27th International Congress of Notaries, held in Lima, Peru, in 2013, where he presented a report on the regulation of the real estate market. He also spoke at the 1st International Colloquium on Trusts and Fiducies in September 2016, where he addressed, among other matters, the challenges associated with implementing cross-border fiducies.
He is a seminar instructor at the Institute of Judicial and Legal Studies in Mauritius.
In 2018, he was a founding member of the working group that, under the leadership of Professor Hugues Périnet-Marquet (University of Paris Panthéon-Assas), overhauled the legal framework governing co-ownership and landowners’ associations in Mauritius.
Mr Dwarka regularly publishes scholarly legal articles in law and finance journals in France (Gazette du Palais), Mauritius (Bar Chronicle, Mauritius Law Review, Mauritius Finance Magazine) and India (International Taxation, published by Taxmann, and Global Taxation).
Positions held
Mr Dwarka served three terms as an elected member of the Chamber of Notaries, the profession’s regulatory and disciplinary body.
He is a member of the International Fiscal Association and Mauritius Finance (formed through the merger of the Association of Trust and Management Companies and Global Finance Mauritius).
He served as Chair of the Financial Services Fund Managing Committee at the Financial Services Commission.
Mr Dwarka served as Chairman of the Board of Directors of one of the first two stand-alone private banks licensed in Mauritius, Banque Privée de Fleury Limited.
For many years, Mr Dwarka has taught notarial law and tax law to students enrolled in the Law Practitioners Vocational Course (LPVC).