Department of Economic and Statistics clarifies acceptance of birth and death certificates

The Department of Economic and Statistics has informed that it has come to their notice that certain agencies and institutions are not accepting manually issued birth and death certificates for the provision of services to the public.

The department reiterated that, as per Section 17 (3) of the Registration of Births & Deaths Act 1969 (Amended in 2023), birth certificates issued electronically or otherwise shall be the only document used to prove the date and place of birth of a person, for the purposes of admission to an education institution, issuance of a driving license, preparation of voter list, registration of marriage, appointment to a government post, issuance of a passport, issuance of an Aadhaar number and any other purpose as determined by the Central Government.

Further, to facilitate access to Birth & Death Certificates through online modes, the department informed that it has launched the online registration of Births & Deaths in 2022. At present, the service is available only in the 12 district headquarters of Kohima, Dimapur, Chumukedima, Wokha, Zunheboto, Tuensang, Mon, Mokokchung, Kiphire, Longleng, Peren and Phek for the urban jurisdictions. The department added that efforts are being made to extend the online registration of births and deaths to both the urban and rural registration units in the state in a phased manner.

As such, the department reiterated that certificates issued manually by the Registrars of Births and Deaths shall continue to be recognized as legal documents along with the computer generated certificates to prove the date and place of birth of a person.

MT