Mumbai: The Maharashtra Health Services Directorate has ordered cancellation of 19,734 birth certificate amendments made by the BMC, stating that the corrections were not carried out in accordance with provisions of the Registration of Births and Deaths (RBD) Act. In a directive issued on June 9, the director of health services instructed the executive health officer and district registrar, Mumbai, to revoke amendments made in the SAP system during the years 2024-2026, while restoring the original birth records.
This means the birth certificates will not be cancelled, only the changes made to them, which BJP’s Kirit Somaiya has been alleging have been made with mala fide intent, making them open to “misuse.”
The latest order follows a communication from the BMC on June 2, stating that the corrections had not been carried out as per the RBD Act and seeking approval to cancel the amended records.
The state govt stated that births and deaths are required to be registered exclusively through the civil registration system (CRS) portal, as mandated under existing govt resolutions and the amended RBD Act. It also reiterated that registrars can make corrections only under the limited powers provided under Section 15 of the Act and Rule 11 of the Maharashtra Registration of Births and Deaths Rules, 2000.
The director’s order clarified that while the chief registrar has the authority to cancel original birth or death records under certain circumstances, the present case involves retaining the original records and cancelling only unauthorised amendments. Authorities have been directed to verify documents related to each of the 19,734 corrected records individually, take action in accordance with legal provisions and submit a compliance report to the deputy chief registrar in Pune.
When contacted, a senior official from the public health department said, “We had sought these cancellations. Of the 19,734, a break-up shows that in case of 16,528 birth certificates there were no supporting documents provided at all, while in case of 3,206 birth certificates, the supporting documents provided were incomplete.”
BJP’s Somaiya said, “The cancellation of 19,734 birth certificate amendments exposes the scale of irregularities in the system. It is deeply alarming that changes to such critical public records were allegedly carried out without mandatory affidavits, applications or supporting documents. Every fraudulent amendment must be revoked immediately, accountability must be fixed, and a thorough investigation should identify those responsible for facilitating this breach of public trust.”
Mayor Ritu Tawde had said after a review meeting in Jan this year that 267 fake birth certificates had been issued to Bangladeshi nationals.
Richa Pinto is a special correspondent with The Times of India. S...
Read MoreRicha Pinto is a special correspondent with The Times of India. She covers urban governance & climate change issues. With over a decade of experience in field reporting, she has written extensively on various civic issues affecting Mumbaikars. She graduated in -journalism from the prestigious Mumbai-based St Xavier's College and later pursued a three-year Law degree (L.L.B.) with the University of Mumbai. She regularly tweets about all things that matter to Mumbai on-- @richapintoi.
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