there is no legal rule but in indian government offices, legal judiciary the following rule is followed and only certain authorities are allowed to sign in red , green inks, for eg, gazetted officers can only sign in green ink. So at home you can sign in any ink but as mentioned by one member in school application form you have to sign use only blue / black ink.
No there is no legal rule but in manual of office procedure thereis some reference to use of different colour inks by different level of officers. Generally Blue & black is used at lowest level, green in middle level and red at highest level. But point pertinent to mention here is that no matter which colour is used by which level, ever official signs with either blue or green ink preferably. Read the following extract :-
"Every record creating agency, he wrote, in creating records of permanent nature should use fountain pen inks and ball point pen inks of permanent nature prescribed by the Bureau of Indian Standards as is: 221-1962, is: 220-1988, and is 1581-1975 in respect of fountain pen inks of blue/ black colour; and is: 8505-1993 in respect of ball point pen ink. So far as fountain pen ink of permanent nature is concerned, the National Archives declared, the prescribed colour is blue-black, while for ball point pens the colours are blue, black, red or green. Longevity clearly was not a sufficient criterion to clinch the question"
And Para 68, sub-para 5 of the Manual of Office Procedures now reads:
"Initial drafting will be done in black or blue ink. Modifications in the draft at the subsequent levels may be made in green or red ink by the offices so as to distinguish the corrections made."
" Para 32(9) of mannual of office procedure says that only officers of Joint Secretary level and above may use red or green ink, and that too only in rare cases. Para 68(5), on the other hand, does not limit the use of these colours to any particular rank; and it does not say that the corrections and amendments for which the colours are used have to be of an especially rare kind"
BUT NOTHING IS CLEAR AS THIS IS THE WORK OF OUR GREAT BABUS
you can use any color you want, but yes, there are rules like that that can apply and sometimes agents will not take a document signed in red or green if they are wanting you to sign specifically as a "civilian" or "state person" or "driver" or "resident" or what-not. Different color inks can have specific meanings on legal documents.
in Law, red ink in a signature can mean that the author is a living man or woman, signing as a living man or woman. it means possessing blood, basically.
black & blue can mean that it was signed in the capacity as a corporate entity, which does not have the kind of authority and freedom and God-given rights that a living man or woman has. Examples are state statuses and offices such as those in quotes above
so that's part of why they want you to sign in blue or black. it's more evidence of your consent to a less-than-human status that can be controlled much more easily than a human can legally.
not sure what green represents, but according to wikipedia, chiefs of MI6 and Admirals in the Royal Navy use green ink. I'm not finding it now but I've seen some really good legal cites and case law explaining the legal significance of using different color inks.
I always sign in red, indicating that I have no intention of having myself considered less than human, and not possessing my own blood.
Source(s):
Black's Law Dictionary, 4th ed. -- "Monster"
wikipedia -- "green ink"
source:
Is there any legal rule that green and red inks should only be used by higher government authorities? - Yahoo! Answers India