Author Details:-
TARUMITA BISWAS
1st Years, B.Sc. LL.B
West Bengal National University of Juridical Science
NUJS, Kolkata
Definition:
THE REGISTRATION OF BIRTHS AND DEATHS ACT, 1969 is an act to register all the details of each person born or dying within the territory of India or any Indian outside the territory of India to keep a record of the population and unique details of each person.
The Act bears the right to Certificates of Birth and Death.
Amendment:
The “THE REGISTRATION OF BIRTHS AND DEATHS (AMENDMENT) BILL, 2023”, was issued on 26th July 2023.
It passed Lok Sabha on 01st August 2023.
It passed Rajya Sabha on 07th August 2023.
Changes:
The REGISTRATION OF BIRTHS AND DEATHS (AMENDMENT) BILL, 2023 brought massive changes to the principle Act of THE REGISTRATION OF BIRTHS AND DEATHS ACT, 1969, the inclusion or omission and changes of sections. Those are as follows:
Definitions:
In definitions and interpretations, new terminologies and their definition have been added. Those are:
- Aadhaar Number: A unique number assigned for every Indian. ( Aadhaar (Targeted Delivery of Financial and Other Subsidies, Benefits and Services) Act, 2016;)
- Adoption: Adoption refers to the process by which an adopted child is completely separated from their biological parents and becomes the legitimate child of his adoptive parents, with all the rights, privileges, and obligations that come with that connection. (clause (2) of section 2 of the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act, 2015).
- Database: The organised collection of data stored and retrieved electronically via a computer network.
Additional works for Registrar General of India, Chief Registrar:
It is obligatory for the Chief Registrar and the Registrars to send all the birth and death data to the Registrar General of India. The Registrar General must maintain a national database of registered births and deaths. Also, with prior information and approval, they must make those data available to other Inter-Connected Databases.
Inter-Connected Database:
On request, the birth and death certificates will be made available to the particular authorities of-
- Population register: a statistical calculation of the total number of Indians.
- Electoral roll, ( shall be without prejudice to the provisions of the Representation of the People Act, 1950.”): a statistical calculation of the total number of voters and non-voters of India.
- Aadhaar number: A unique number assigned for each Indian and used as another document verifier.
- Ration card: The rationing scheme provides 5kg of free food grains per month to people experiencing poverty, giving the statistical calculation of several people under economic margin to call them under poverty.
- Passport: A passport is a document that certifies a person’s nationality and permits them to visit other countries for international tours or other purposes.
- Driving licence: After passing the proper exam at RTOs, an adult acquires a driving licence so that they can drive any car within the permit of that licence.
- Property registration: property registration data are also stored at the national level, which helps to know the property owners of the country and what each person is.
- Other National level databases.
Centralised Database:
The Registrar General of India shall maintain a centralised database of registered births and deaths at the national level, and the Chief Registrars and Registrars shall be required to share registered birth and death data with the Registrar General.
The data will be included in the NPR(National Population Record) and all other documents related to the NPR, such as ration cards, property registration, etc.
Digitalisation (electronically or otherwise):
The whole amendment mainly focuses on the words “electronically or otherwise”, which is a remark that modern digitalisation and digital databases are best to make the birth and death database nationally available. For that, the data will no longer be stored in a hard in a single place, and there is a lesser chance of getting damaged.
The phrases were included in the following sections:
- Section 7, Subsection (2)
- Section 12
- Section 16, Sub-section (1)
- Section 17, Sub-section (1), clause (b)
of the principle Act.
Inclusion of all types of compulsory documents:
It is mentioned in the amendment that a person’s birth and death data should be connected with all the other documents of a person in their lifetime to create or terminate those documents. For Example:
- Passport: A passport is a document that certifies a person’s nationality and permits them to visit other countries for international tours or other purposes.
- Driving licence: After passing the proper exam at RTOs, an adult acquires a driving licence so that they can drive any car within the permit of that licence.
- Aadhaar Card: A unique number assigned for each Indian to be used as another document verifier.
- PAN Card: all tax-related information for a person/company is connected with this card’s unique number.
- EPIC: Election Photo Identity Card, also called voter card, is the card that gives an adult access to vote in the joint elections, and everyone has a unique number and identity in it.
- And other documents.
Gender neutrality:
In the Principle Act, in section 8(1)(a), where it is mentioned who is required to register births or deaths, it was written that the “oldest adult male person present” can register in the absence of any other required persons. The word “MALE” has been omitted, and any oldest adult can give a signature to such a register. The amendment made the Principal Act gender-neutral.
Clarity:
The amendment made the Principal Act more transparent as it pointed out a few blurry points, like
- Registrar General, India is substituted with Registrar General of India.
- The database registration will be both handwritten, digital, and otherwise.
- The informant should put their signature or thumb impression to register a birth or death certificate.
- All the words “extract” are substituted with “Certificates”.
Special registrar for disaster and epidemic (management):
After India faced the COVID-19 epidemic in 2020, there was massive pressure on the administration. They had to control the system and maintain the health regulations single-handedly, leading to colossal mismanagement.
In crucial times of epidemic or any disasters, with the prior permission of the Chief Registrar, a Special Sub-Registrar can be appointed. That can ease the duty and speed up the process.
Special care in special cases:
In the new amendment, the new Bill included rules for people in the following conditions:
- Orphan: Orphans are those who lost their biological father and mother
- Abandoned child: A child whose biological father and mother illegally abandon him as they don’t want to continue their guardianship.
- Surrendered child: A child who is abandoned by their parents (not in an illegal way) on account of physical, emotional, financial and social factors that are beyond their control or by the pressure of the committee to which they belong.
- Adoptions (on adoption centres/homes): Abandoned or surrendered children are rehabilitated by a few government or non-government organisations, which allow the interested couple to become their parents after passing a few tests and processes; this is called adoption centres or adoption homes.
- Adopted children: When a child is adopted by a couple or single mother who are not their biological parents are called the adopted child.
- Children of single parents: When a woman decides to become a parent to her biological child or an adopted child, she is called a single parent.
- Children of unwed mothers: If an unwed lady allows herself to become a mother before her marriage, the kid is, of course, a child of an unwed mother.
- Children from surrogacy and biological parents: When a woman, with her consent, allows another’s foetus to be carried in her uterus, gives birth to the child and returns the child to its biological parents, she is called a surrogated mother. The process is called surrogacy.
Aadhaar number to be mandatory:
The Aadhaar number is a unique code for every person, made once in a lifetime, and any documents of that person are linked with the Aadhaar card. In matters of birth, including the Aadhaar number of the parents in the certificate is mandatory, and for the matter of death, the person’s Aadhaar number is compulsory.
The Signatures:
For the informants, while giving information about any person’s birth or death to the registrar, they should sign or put a signature in their information register if the person is literate or put a thumb impression on that register. The “signatures” were not mentioned in most sections, so they were included in the Bill.
Time Bound for Registration and Certificates:
The time for registration is within thirty days of birth and death, and the registrar is bound to give the certificate within seven days of the registration free of cost.
Suppose anybody delays and registers the occurrence of birth or death thirty days after the occurrence, still one year after the occurrence. In that case, the matter shall be registered only with the written permission of the District Registrar and a payment as prescribed.
Increased FINES for penalties:
After the amendment, Section 23
- In subsection 1, for failure to report without reasonable cause (clause a), the inclusion of false information (clause b), and the informant refusing to write the name, description, place, or signature/thumb impression (clause c) shall be punishable with a fine which may extend to two hundred fifty rupees (increased from fifty rupees).
- In Subsection 2, if the registrar or sub-registrar refuses to register any birth or death without any reasonable cause, it shall be punishable with a fine which may extend to two hundred fifty rupees (increased from fifty rupees).
- In Subsection 3, any medical practitioner who neglects or refuses to issue a certificate or deliver a certificate of death or birth shall be punishable with a fine, which may extend to two hundred fifty rupees.
- In Subsection 4, if anybody contravenes any provision of this Act and no penalty is stipulated, the person shall be punishable with a fine which may extend to two hundred fifty rupees.
Benefits of this Bill:
The Bill is gender neutral, clear to concept and more approached with the modernisation of the digitalisation eras.
This Bill makes birth and death certificates compulsory for all, and their interconnection with other documents helps us move haste-free so that we do not need to carry a document with several certificates but only the Aadhaar card. Carrying hardcopies is hard for people for silly little purposes. Hardcopies has huge chance to get destroyed, purposefully morphed, tampered, erased, usage of whitener or any other corrector. Digitalization of document has lesser chances of all those possible consequences.
Hardcopy Verification was so hectic when the application was distant. Online National level database helps us to access the documents over the country, from anywhere, making digital verification easy.
It is easy for the government to get the National Population Report, Rate of death and birth in India, Population growth, Unique IDs of each Indian, interconnection of those documents, and identification of a person with the help of the national level database of birth and death certificate.
Concerns of the Bill:
From this Bill, the certificate of birth is now compulsory for all.
Possible consequences:
- Though it makes provisions for abandoned children, still not all are getting birth certificates as nobody becomes a voluntary informant for that child.
- So many places are still poor enough that they never seen the light of technology. So, the digitalisation of certificates is out of their hands.
As per the opposition,
- The right to education is hampered as schools will not accept admissions without a birth certificate.
- There are no proper disciplinary laws for data protection, and there is still a considerable risk of online clouds with their encryption, privacy, and security. So, it might infringe on the constitutional rights of the right to education and privacy.
Conclusion:
In conclusion, it is to be mentioned that amidst pros and cons, the Bill is satisfactorily amended with proper care of gender neutrality, digitalisation and modernisation, disaster management, penalties based on today’s monetary values and more.
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