India has made enormous strides in digital governance. Today, nearly every major government document โ from your Aadhaar card to your tax return โ is available as a digitally signed PDF. These signatures provide legal authenticity and tamper-proof guarantees. Yet one common problem affects all of them: when opened in a standard PDF viewer, they show "Signature Validity Unknown." This comprehensive guide covers all major document types, their Certifying Authorities, and how VerifySign.in solves this problem in one place.
India's digital signature ecosystem is governed by the Controller of Certifying Authorities (CCA) under MeitY. The CCA operates as the root trust authority and licenses sub-CAs who issue document-signing certificates. The major CAs relevant to citizen documents are:
| Document | Issuing Authority | Signing CA | Why Unknown |
|---|---|---|---|
| Aadhaar Card (PDF) | UIDAI | UIDAI / NIC | Not in AATL |
| PAN Card (DigiLocker) | NSDL / UTI-ITSL | NIC | Not in AATL |
| ITR Acknowledgement | Income Tax Department | CBDT | Not in AATL |
| Form 26AS | Income Tax Department | CBDT | Not in AATL |
| AIS (Annual Information Statement) | Income Tax Department | CBDT | Not in AATL |
| Driving Licence (DigiLocker) | Parivahan / MoRTH | NIC | Not in AATL |
| Vehicle RC (DigiLocker) | Parivahan / MoRTH | NIC | Not in AATL |
| Academic Marksheet (DigiLocker) | CBSE / State Boards | NIC | Not in AATL |
| GST Registration Certificate | GSTN | NIC / GSTN CA | Not in AATL |
| e-Apostille Certificate | MEA | MEA / NIC | Not in AATL |
Long-Term Validation (LTV) is a PDF standard (ISO 32000) that allows a verified signature to remain provably valid long after the signing certificate has expired or been revoked. When VerifySign.in processes your document, it embeds the complete verification chain โ certificate chain, OCSP/CRL revocation data, and timestamp information โ directly into the PDF file. This means the PDF carries its own proof of validity, independent of any external server or certificate trust list. Open it in ten years, on any device, and it will still show a green tick.
Traditional certificate-based verification requires each viewer to have the relevant root certificates installed locally. VerifySign.in takes a different approach: instead of asking you to configure your viewer, it embeds the verification proof into the PDF itself. The result is a document that is self-contained and universally trusted โ without any software installation on your end or the recipient's end. This is the only approach that works reliably when sharing documents with banks, embassies, or employers who use different operating systems and PDF viewers.
Instant digital signature verification for any government PDF โ free, secure, no software needed.
Go to VerifySign.in โ