BIRTHS, DEATHS AND MARRIAGES
REGISTRATION ACT, 1886
[Act No.
6 of 1886 dated 8th. March, 1886]1
An Act to provide for the voluntary registration of
certain births and deaths, for the establishment of General Registry
Offices for keeping registers of certain births, deaths and
marriages, and for certain other
purposes.
Whereas
it is expedient to provide for the voluntary registration of births
and deaths among certain classes of persons, for the more effectual
registration of those births and deaths and of the marriages
registered under Act 3 of 1872 or the Indian Christian
Marriage Act, 1872 (15 of 1872), and of certain marriages registered
under the Parsi Marriage and Divorce Act, 18653 (15 of
1865), and for the establishment of general registry offices for
keeping registers of those births, deaths and marriages;
And
Whereas it is also expedient to provide for the authentication and
custody of certain existing registers made otherwise than in the
performance of a duty specially enjoined by the law of the country
in which the registers were kept, and to declare that copies of the
entries in those registers shall be admissible in evidence;
It is
hereby enacted as follows:-
Comment: This Act was enacted for
establishing a system of voluntary registration of births and deaths
for such classes of the community as would be likely to avail
themselves of such registration, to establish registration offices
and to provide evidentiary rules.
CHAPTER I : PRELIMINARY
1. Short title
and commencement
(1) This
Act may be called the Births, Deaths and Marriages Registration Act,
1886; and
(2) It
shall come into force on such day as the Central Government, by
notification in the Official Gazette, directs.
2. Extent
This Act
extends to the whole of India except [the territories which,
immediately before the 1st. November, 1956, were comprised in Part B
States].]
3.
Definitions
In this
Act, unless there is something repugnant in the subject or
context,-
"sign"
includes mark, when the person making the mark is unable to write
his name:
"prescribed" means prescribed by a rule made
9[***] under this Act : and
"Registrar of Births and Deaths" means a Registrar of Births
and Deaths appointed under this Act.
4. Saving of
local laws
Nothing
is this Act, or in any rule made under this Act, shall affect any
law heretofore or hereafter passed providing for the registration of
births and deaths within particular local areas.
5. Power
exercisable from time to time
All
powers conferred by this Act may be exercised from time to time as
occasion requires.
CHAPTER II : GENERAL REGISTRY OFFICES OF BIRTHS. DEATHS
AND MARRIAGES
6. Establishment
of general registry offices and appointment of registrars
General
(1) Each
State Government.
(a)
shall establish a general registry office for keeping such certified
copies of registers of births and deaths registers of births and
deaths registered under this Act, or marriages registered under Act
3 of 18722 (to provide a form of marriage in certain
cases) or the Indian Christian Marriage Act, 1872 (15 of 1872) or,
beyond the local limits of the ordinary original civil jurisdiction
of the High Court of judicature at Bombay, under the Parsi Marriage
and Divorce Act, 1865 (15 of 1865), as may be sent to it
under this Act, or under any of the three last mentioned Acts, as
amended by this Act; and
(b) may
appoint to the charge of that office an officer, to be called, the
registrar General of Births, Deaths and Marriages, for the
territories under its administration.
7. Indexes to be kept at general registry
office
Each
Registrar General of Births, Deaths and Marriages shall cause
indexes of al the certified copies of registers sent to his office
under this Act, or under Act 3 of 18722, the Indian
Christian Marriage Act, 1872 (15 of 1872) or the Parsi Marriage and
Divorce Act 18653 (15 of 1865) as amended by this Act, to
be made and kept in his office in the prescribed form.
8. Indexes to be
open to inspection
Subject
to the payment of the prescribed fees, the indexes so made shall be
at all reasonable times open to inspection by and person applying to
inspect them, and copies of entries in the certified copies of the
registers to which the indexes relate shall be given to all persons
applying for them.
9. Copies of
entries to be admissible in evidence
A copy
of an entry given under the last foregoing section shall be
certified by the Registrar general of Births, Deaths and Marriages,
or by an office authorised in this behalf by the State Government,
and shall be admissible in evidence for the purpose of proving the
birth, death or marriage to which the entry relates.
10.
Superintendence of Registrars by Registrar
General
Each
registrar General of Births, Deaths and Marriages shall exercise a
general superintendence over the Registrars of Births and Deaths in
the territories for which he is appointed.
CHAPTER III : REGISTRATION OF BIRTHS AND DEATHS
A.- Application of this
Chapter
11. Persons
whose births and deaths are registrable
(1) the
person whose births and deaths shall, in the first instance, be
registrable under this Chapter are the following, namely:-
(a) in
the territories to which this Act extends] the members of every
race, sect or tribe to which the Indian Succession Act,
186512 (10 of 1865) applies, and in respect of which an
order under section 332 of that Act is not for the time being in
force, and all persons professing the Christian religion;
(2) But
the State Government, by notification in the Official Gazette,
may extend the
operation of this Chapter to any other class of persons either
generally or in any local area.
B.-Registration
establishment
12. Power for
State Government to appoint Registrars for its
territories
The
State Government may appoint, either by name or by virtue of their
office, so many person as it thinks necessary to be Registrars of
Births and Deaths for such local areas within the territories under
its administration as it may define and, if it sees fit, for any
class of persons within any part of those territories.
[Section 13
repealed by the A. O. 1950.]
14. Registrar to
be deemed a public servant
Every
registrar of Births and Deaths shall be deemed to be a public
servant within the meaning of the Indian Penal Code (45 of
1860).
[Section 15
repealed by the A. O. 1937]
16. Office and
attendance of Registrar
(1)
Every Registrar of Births and Deaths shall have an office in the
local area, or within the part of the territories or dominions, for
which he is appointed.
(2)
Every Registrar of Births and Deaths to whom the State Government
may direct this sub-section to apply shall attend at his office for
the purpose of Registering births and deaths on such days and at
such hours as the Registrar General of Births, Deaths and Marriages
may direct, and shall cause to be placed in some conspicuous place
on or near the outer door of his office his name, with the addition
of Registrar of Births and Deaths for the local area or class for
which he is appointed, and the days and hours of his
attendance.
17. Absence of
registrar or vacancy in his office
(1) When
any Registrar of Births and Deaths to whom the State Government may
direct this section to apply15, not being a registrar of
Births and Deaths for a local area in the town of Calcutta, Madras
or Bombay, is absent, or when his office is temporarily vacant, any
person whom the Registrar General of Births, Deaths and Marriages
appoints in this behalf, or in default of such appointment, the
Judge of the District Court within the local limits of whose
jurisdiction the Registrars office is situate, or such other
officer as the State Government appoints in this behalf, shall be
the Registrar of Births and Deaths during such absence or until the
State Government fills the Vacancy.
(2) When
any such Registrar of Births and Deaths for a local area in the town
of Calcutta, madras or Bombay is absent, or when his office is
temporarily vacant, any person whom the registrar General of Births,
Deaths and Marriages appoints in this behalf shall be the Registrar
of Births and Deaths during such absence or until the State
Government fills the vacancy.
(3) The
Registrar General of Births, Deaths and Marriages shall report to
the State Government all appointments made by him under this
section.
18. Register
books to be supplied and preservation of records to be provided
for
The
State Government shall supply every Registrar of Births and Deaths
with a sufficient number of register books of births and of register
books of deaths, and shall make suitable provision for the
preservation of the records connected with the registration of
births and deaths.
C.- Mode of registration
19. Duty of
Registrar to register births and deaths of which notice is
given
Every
Registrar of Births and Deaths, on receipt of notice of a birth or
death within the local area or among the class for which he is
appointed, shall, if the notice is given within the prescribed time
and in the prescribed mode by a person authorised by this Act to
give the notice, forthwith make an entry of the birth or death in
the proper register book:
Provided
that-
(a) if
he has reason to believe the notice to be in any respect false, he
may refuse to register the birth or death until he receives an order
from the Judge of the District Court directing him to make the entry
and prescribing the manner in which the entry is to be made;
and
(b) he
shall not enter in the register the name of any person as father of
an illegitimate child, unless at the request of the mother and of
the person acknowledging himself to be the father of the child.
20. Persons
authorised to give notice of birth
Any of
the following persons may give notice of a birth, namely:-
(a) the
father or mother of the child;
(b) any
person present at the birth;
(c) any
person occupying, at the time of the birth, any part of the house
wherein the child was born and having knowledge of the child having
been born in the house;
(d) any
medical practitioner in attendance after the birth and having
personal knowledge of the birth having occurred;
(e) any
person having charge of the child.
21. persons
authorised to give notice of death
Any of
the following persons may give notice of a death, namely:-
(a) any
relative of the deceased having knowledge of any of the particulars
required to be registered concerning the death;
(b) any
person present at the death;
(c) any
person occupying, at the time of the death, any part of the house
wherein the death occurred and having knowledge of the deceased
having died in the house;
(d) any
person in attendance during the last illness of the deceased;
(e) any
person who has seen the body of the deceased after death.
22. Entry of
birth or death to be signed by person giving
notice
(1) When
an entry of a birth or death has been made by the Registrar of
Births and Deaths under section 19, the person giving notice of the
birth or death must sign the entry in the register in the presence
of the Registrar :
Provided
that it shall not be necessary for the person giving notice to
attend before the Registrar or to sign the entry in the register if
he has given such notice in writing and has furnished to the
satisfaction of the Registrar such evidence of his identity as may
be required by any rules made by the state Government in this
behalf.]
(2)
Until the entry has been so signed 17[or the conditions
specified in the proviso to sub-section (I) have been complied
with], the birth or death shall bot be deemed to be registered under
this Act.
(3) When
the birth of an illegitimate child is registered, and the mother and
the person acknowledging himself to be the father of the child
jointly request that person may be registered as the father, the
mother and that person must both sign the entry in the register in
the presence of the Registrar.
23. Grant of
certificate of registration of birth or death
The
Registrar of Births and Deaths shall, on application made at the
time of registering any birth or death by the person giving notice
of the birth or death, and on payment by him of the prescribed fee,
give to the applicant a certificate in the prescribed form, signed
by the Registrar, of having registered the birth or death.
24. Duty of
Registrars as to sending certified copies of entries in register
books to Registrar General
(1)
Every Registrar of Births and Deaths in 11[the
territories to which this Act extends] shall send to the Registrar
General of Births, Deaths and Marriages for the territories within
which the local area or class for which he is appointed is situate
or resides, at the prescribed intervals, a true copy certified by
him, in the prescribed form, of all the entries of births and deaths
in the register book kept by him since the last of those intervals
:
Provided
that in the case of Registrars of Births and Deaths who are
clergymen of the Churches or England, Rome and Scotland, the
Registrar may, if so directed by his ecclesiastical superior, send
the certified copies in the first instance to superior, who shall
send them to the proper Registrar General of Births, Deaths and
Marriages.
In this
sub-section "Church of England" and "Church of Scotland" mean the
Church of England and the Church of Scotland as by law established
respectively; and "Church of Rome" means the Church which regards
the Pope of Rome as its spiritual head.
25. Search and copies of entries in register
books
(1)
Every registrar of Births and Deaths shall, on payment of the
prescribed fees, at all reasonable times, allow searches to be made
in the register books kept by him, and give a copy of any entry in
the same.
(2) Every copy of an entry in a
register book given under this section shall be certified by the
Registrar of Births and Deaths, and shall be admissible in evidence
for the purpose of proving the birth or death to which the entry
relates.
26. Exceptional
provision for registration of certain births and
deaths
Notwithstanding anything in
section 19, the 20[State Government] may make rules
authorising Registrars of Births and Deaths, on conditions and in
circumstances to be specified in the rules, to register births and
deaths occurring outside the local areas or classes for which they
are appointed.
27. Penalty for
wilfully giving false information
If any person wilfully makes, or
causes to be made, for the purpose of being inserted in any register
of births or deaths, any false statement in connection with any
notice of a birth or death under this Act, he shall be punished with
imprisonment for a term which may extend to three years, or with
fine or with both.
E.- Correction of errors
28. Correction
of entry in register of births or deaths
(1) If it is proved to the
satisfaction of a Registrar of births and Deaths that any entry of a
birth or death in any register kept by him under this Act is
erroneous in form or substance, he may, subject to such rules as may
be made by the State Government] with respect to the conditions and
circumstances on and in which errors may be corrected, correct the
error by entry in the margin, without any alteration of the original
entry, and shall sign the marginal entry and add thereto the date of
the correction.
(2) If a certified copy of the
entry has already been sent to the Registrar General of Births,
Deaths and marriages, the Registrar of Births and Deaths shall make
and send a separate certified copy of the original erroneous entry
and of the marginal correction therein made.
[CHAPTER IV : AMENDMENT OF MARRIAGE ACTS repealed by the
Repealing Act, 1938 (1 of 1938)]
CHAPTER V : SPECIAL PROVISIONS AS TO CERTAIN EXISTING
REGISTERS
32. Permission
to persons having custody of certain records to send them within one
year to Registrar General
If any
person in the territories to which this Act extends] has for the
time being the custody of any register or record of birth, baptism,
naming, dedication, death or burial of any persons of the classes
referred to in section 11, sub-section (1), or of any register or
record of marriage of any persons of the classes to which Act 3 of
1872 or the Indian Christian Marriage Act, 1872 (15 of 1872), or the
Parsi Marriage and Divorce Act, 1865 (15 of 1865), applies, and if
such register or record has been made otherwise than in performance
of a duty specially enjoined by the law of the country in which the
register or record was kept, he may, 23[at any time
before the first day of April, 1891] send the register or record to
the office of the Registrar General of births, Deaths and Marriages
for the territories within which he resides
33. Appointment
of Commissioners to examine registers
(1) Any
State Government in the case of registers or records sent under
section 32 to the Registrar General for the territories under its
administration, may
appoint so many persons as it
thinks fit to be Commissioners for examining such registers
or records.]
(2) The
Commissioners so appointed shall hold office for such period as the
28[authority appointing them], by the order of
appointment, or any subsequent order, directs.
34. Duties of
Commissioners
(1) The
Commissioners appointed under the last foregoing section shall
enquire into the state, custody and authenticity of every such
register or record as may be sent to the Registrar General of
Births, Deaths and Marriages under section 32;
and
shall deliver to the Registrar General a descriptive list or
descriptive lists of all such registers or records, or portions of
registers or records, as they find to be accurate and faithful.
(2) The
list or lists shall contain the prescribed particulars and refer to
the registers or records, or to the portions of the registers or
records, in the prescribed manner.
(3) The
Commissioners shall also certify in writing, upon some part of every
separate book or volume containing any such register or record, or
portion of a register or record, as is referred to in any list or
lists made by the Commissioners, that it is one of the registers or
records, referred to in the said list or lists,
35. Searches of
lists prepared by Commissioners and grant of certified copies of
entries
(1)
Subject to the payment of the prescribed fees, the descriptive list
or lists of registers or records, or portions of registers or
records, delivered by the Commissioners to the Registrar General of
Births, Deaths and Marriages shall be, at all reasonable times, open
to inspection by any person applying to inspect it or them, and
copies of entries in those registers or records shall be given to
all persons applying for them.
(2) A
copy of an entry given under this section shall be certified by the
Registrar General of Births, Deaths and Marriages, or by an officer
or person authorised in this behalf by the State Government and
shall be admissible in evidence for the purpose of proving the
birth, baptism, naming, dedication, death, burial or marriage to
which the entry relates.
35A.
Constitution of additional commissions for purposes of this
Chapter
(1) the State Government may be
notification in the Official Gazette] appoint more Commissions than
one for the purposes of section 33, each such Commission consisting
of so many and such members, and having its functions restricted to
the disposal, under this Act and the rules thereunder, of such
registers and records sent under section 32 to the Registrar
General, as may be specified in the notification.
(2) If
more Commissions than one are appointed in exercise of the power
conferred by sub-section (1), then references in this Act to the
Commissioners shall be construed as references to the members
constituting a Commission so appointed.]
CHAPTER VI : RULES
36.
Rules
(1) The
State Government, for each State, may make rules to carry out
the purposes of this Act.
(2) In
particular and without prejudice to the generality of the foregoing
power, such rules may-
(a) fix
the fees payable under this Act;
(b)
prescribe the forms required for the purposed of this Act;
(c)
prescribe the time within which, and the mode in which, persons
authorised under this Act to give notice of a birth or death to a
Registrar of Births and Deaths must give the notice.
(d)
prescribe the evidence of identity to be furnished to a registrar of
Births and Deaths by persons giving notice of a birth or death in
cases where personal attendance before such Registrar is dispensed
with;
(e)
prescribe the registers to be kept and the form and manner in which
Registrars of Births and Deaths are to register births and deaths
under this Act and the intervals at which they are to send to the
Registrar General of Births, Deaths and Marriages, true copies of
the entries of births and deaths in the registers kept by them;
(f)
prescribed the conditions and circumstances on and in which
Registrars of Births and Deaths may correct entries of births and
deaths inn registers kept by them;
(g)
prescribe the particulars which the descriptive list or lists to be
prepared by the Commissioners appointed under Chapter V are to
contain, and the manner in which they are to refer to the registers
or records, or portions of registers, or records to which they
relate; and
(h)
prescribe the custody in which those registers or records are to be
kept.
(3)
Every power to make rules conferred by this Act is subject to the
condition of the rules being made after previous publication.
(4) All
rules made under this Act shall be published in the Official
Gazette, and on such publication shall have effect as if enacted in
this Act.]
[Section 37
repealed by the Births, Deaths and Marriages Registration Amendment
Act, 1911]