Character Certificate (Police) in Nagaland

What is a police character certificate in Nagaland?

A character certificate in Nagaland is Nagaland Police's written statement that its records disclose nothing adverse against a named person at the address that person has declared in the state. Nagaland Police is the issuing authority, working under the Home Department of the Government of Nagaland, with Police Headquarters at P.R. Hill, Kohima-797001.

The most important fact for anyone searching for this document in Nagaland is a negative one, and it is worth stating plainly. Nagaland has no online character certificate service. The Government of Nagaland's Unified Services Portal at services.nagaland.gov.in is the state's single verified gateway to public services, carrying 53 services from 17 departments and organisations to 10 processed inside the portal and 43 redirecting to department or partner websites. A character certificate, a police verification certificate and a police clearance certificate are all absent from that list, and the Home Department's entries there are the Backward Tribe Certificate, the Scheduled Tribe Certificate, the Indigenous Inhabitant Certificate, the Domicile Certificate, Tourist ILP and ILP of other categories.

Nagaland Police's own website carries CCTNS, RTI, downloads, FIR and police-public-interface pages, but no online citizen service portal for character certificates. So the process is an in-person one at the district level, and any website offering to file a "Nagaland character certificate online" for a fee is not a government service.

Who can and who cannot apply?

You can apply for a Nagaland police character certificate if you live in Nagaland and can name the police station covering your residential address, in any of the state's districts, Kohima, Dimapur, Mokokchung, Tuensang, Mon, Zunheboto, Wokha, Phek, Longleng, Kiphire, Peren, Noklak, Chumoukedima, Niuland, Tseminyu or Shamator. There is no income limit and no age bar for this document. It is a records check, not a welfare benefit.

Tribe is not an eligibility test for a character certificate either, which distinguishes it sharply from the Home Department's other certificates. The Unified Services Portal restricts the Scheduled Tribe Certificate to citizens belonging to identified Scheduled Tribes of Nagaland and requires a digitally issued Indigenous Inhabitant Certificate, at a stated cost of service of Rs 100; the Backward Tribe Certificate is similarly restricted. A character certificate carries no such restriction. A non-tribal resident of Dimapur can apply just as a tribal resident of Mon can.

You cannot apply to Nagaland Police for an address outside the state. Nagaland Police verifies only the period and area inside its own jurisdiction, so a previous address in Assam, Manipur, Arunachal Pradesh or elsewhere must be verified by that state's police.

You are also not eligible to receive a clean certificate while a criminal case or an FIR is pending against you. Nagaland Police records what the register shows rather than suppressing it, so a pending case appears on the certificate.

What documents are required?

Nagaland Police does not publish a document checklist for this certificate, so carry the full set rather than the minimum:

• Government photo identity proof; Aadhaar, passport, voter ID or driving licence in the applicant's name.
• Proof of the Nagaland address to be verified, ration card, electricity bill, rent agreement or a residence document naming the village, colony or ward.
• An Indigenous Inhabitant Certificate or equivalent residence document, which district offices in Nagaland commonly ask to see even where it is not strictly required.
• A Village Council or Gaon Bura endorsement of residence, which many district police offices ask for, given the recognised role of village administration in Nagaland.
• At least two passport-size photographs.
• A letter showing the purpose, if you have one, an employer's letter, a visa or job reference, or a licensing authority's requirement.

Carry originals and photocopies of everything. A second trip to a district headquarters from a village is a real cost in Nagaland's terrain, and the commonest reason for one is a missing photocopy.

How to apply for a character certificate in Nagaland

1. Telephone your district Superintendent of Police's office first, or the police station covering your address, and ask what the district requires — specifically whether a Village Council or Gaon Bura endorsement is needed and what the counter fee is. Practice is set at district level and a call saves a wasted journey.
2. Obtain the Village Council or Gaon Bura endorsement, if your district asks for one, before you travel to the district headquarters.
3. Go to the office of the Superintendent of Police for your district with your identity proof, address proof, residence documents, photographs and the purpose letter, and ask for the character certificate application.
4. Fill the application and submit it. Enter your name exactly as it appears on the identity document, along with your father's name, date of birth, the complete address with the police station covering it, your contact number and the purpose: employment, passport, visa, licence or tender. List every Nagaland address you have lived at, not only the current one.
5. Pay the fee stated at the counter and insist on a receipt. Note the file or reference number on the acknowledgement, that number is what you quote in every follow-up.
6. Stay available for the police station's enquiry at the declared address, and collect the certificate from the SP's office when it is ready.

How do you follow up on the application?

Follow up with the office where you filed, quoting the reference number on your acknowledgement, rather than with Police Headquarters in the first instance. The substantive step is an enquiry by the police station covering your address, and the station is where a stalled file actually sits.

If the district office does not respond, Nagaland Police Headquarters at P.R. Hill, Kohima-797001 is the escalation point, on 0370-2243711 or 0370-2243713, or by e-mail at scrb-ngl@nic.in. Nagaland Police also maintains a Police-Public Interface page and a telephone directory of branches and nodal officers on police.nagaland.gov.in, which is the quickest way to find the right officer for a particular district or branch.

Why do Nagaland character certificate applications get delayed?

• The applicant was not found at the declared address when the officer visited, and no neighbour or Village Council member could confirm residence.
• The Village Council or Gaon Bura endorsement was not obtained where the district required one.
• Name, father's name or date of birth on the form does not match the identity document produced.
• A previous Nagaland address was omitted and surfaced during the enquiry.
• The address falls under a different police station from the one approached, so the file has to be transferred.
• Distance between an outlying village and the district headquarters slows the enquiry at both ends.
• A pending FIR or criminal case exists, which the certificate then has to record.

How long is a Nagaland character certificate valid?

Nagaland Police does not print an open-ended validity on this document, and the body asking for it sets the limit in practice. Most employers, passport offices and licensing authorities in India accept a police character certificate issued within the previous six months, and many recruitment processes insist on one issued after the date of the offer letter. Ask the requesting authority how recent a certificate it wants before you apply, because a certificate obtained too early usually has to be obtained again, and in Nagaland that means repeating a journey, not refreshing a web page.

What does it cost, and what about agents?

Pay only what the district Superintendent of Police's office or the police station states at the counter, and ask for a receipt every single time. Nagaland Police does not publish a rate card for this certificate, so the amount on your own receipt is the only figure to go by, and it is the entire legitimate cost. Nobody in a police office in Nagaland is entitled to a rupee beyond it.

Because there is no online service, this is exactly the document that attracts middlemen: including websites that advertise a "Nagaland character certificate online application" and simply collect money for a form you can obtain free at the SP's office. Check the Unified Services Portal at services.nagaland.gov.in yourself if you are in doubt: it is the state's own verified gateway, it lists every service the government offers online, and a character certificate is not one of them.

Where do you complain if something goes wrong?

Start with the Superintendent of Police for your district, then Nagaland Police Headquarters on 0370-2243711 / 0370-2243713, scrb-ngl@nic.in, P.R. Hill, Kohima-797001. Nagaland Police publishes a list of police nodal officers and a telephone directory on its website, and an RTI section with its Public Information Officers named, an RTI application to the district PIO is a legitimate route when a file has sat untouched for months.

For a demand for money outside a counter receipt, escalate to the Superintendent of Police in writing and take your acknowledgement with you. The Government of India's public grievance portal, linked from the Government of Nagaland's own portal, is the further escalation if the state-level route produces nothing.