Karnataka HC tells Registrar of births & deaths and revenue dept to develop proper IT system to help prevent suppression of facts

Bengaluru: The Karnataka High Court has directed that the Registrar of births and deaths in association with the Revenue Department has to develop a proper Information Technology (IT) system in order to prevent suppression of facts, especially when belated applications are filed. Justice Suraj Govindaraj directed the authorities concerned to develop a detailed project plan within a period of six weeks.

“Whenever any application is filed before the Registrar of births and deaths of any particular person, the details of all the properties which are standing in the name of such person should be automatically fetched from the database of the Sub Registrar's office and or the Revenue Department and made available to the Registrar of births and deaths. The records available before any particular hospital concerned with the birth and death would also have to be integrated with the office of the Registrar of births and deaths,” the court said.

The court has directed the Principal Secretary, E-Governance Department, the Principal Secretary, Revenue Department, Principal Secretary, Urban Development Department and the Director of Municipal Administration to look into all the aspects and develop a detailed project plan and submit before the court.

In the case at hand, the court was dealing with a case wherein Mahadevaiah of Tumakuru district filed an application in 2013 seeking issuance of his grandmother Honnamma’s death certificate, 38 years after the death. In this application it was claimed that Honnamma died on June 15, 1975. The Deputy Tahsildar, acting as a Registrar of births and deaths, issued an endorsement that such a belated entry cannot be made. Mahadevaiah moved the Additional Civil Judge and JMFC, Tumkuru.

The matter was referred to the Lok Adalat and Mahadevaiah filed a memo styled as a joint memo, of his and the Deputy Tahasildar, who had remained unrepresented. An order was passed directing the Deputy Tahasildar to act as per the joint memo.

Meanwhile, four persons, all legal representatives of Siddalingaiah, a resident of Tumakuru, challenged this order before the high court stating that Honnamma had in fact died in 1985. According to the petitioners, Honnamma had executed a registered sale deed on April 3, 1979 in favour of Siddalingaiah for a property measuring 3.5 acres at Burudagatta Village in Kora Hobli of Tumkur district.

Justice Suraj Govindaraj noted that if any settlement were to be recorded by the Lok Adalat, it would have to be recorded in terms of the agreement arrived at between all the parties, signed by all the parties and their respective counsels. The court quashed Honnamma’s death certificate issued on January 31, 2014. The court also remitted the matter back to the Tumakuru court for fresh consideration of the matter by making the petitioners as parties to the proceedings.