Magistrates cannot direct issue of birth|death certificates: HC
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Chennai:
TIMES NEWS NETWORK
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The Madras high court has
unearthed a mega racket where touts, lawyers, judicial magistrates and
unscrupulous litigants worked like a well-oiled machine to produce more
than 4 lakh birth and death certificates without verification. A total
of 4,13,751 applications had been ordered by various magistrates in
Tamil Nadu from April 1, 2014 to September 30, 2015.
A shocked
division bench of Justice S Nagamuthu and Justice PN Prakash has now
banned judicial magistrates from directing revenue and corporation
officials to issue birth and death certificates.Any such certificates
issued in that manner after January 25, 2017 would be invalid, it said.
The racket works like this: `A' writes to corpora tionrevenue department saying his birth in a particular year is to be registered, and hence a certificate shall be issued. The department issues a `not traceable' certificate. Using it, `A' places an advertisement in a daily , and when no objection is received, files application in a judicial magistrate court, which directs officials to issue birth certificate bearing a particular date of birth.
The bench stumbled upon the racket after a Srivilliputtur man moved a magistrate court to obtain a birth certificate for his son, so that it could be used in a criminal case where his son was an accused. It would have helped the man's son evade life imprisonment, in the event of conviction, since he would be a `juvenile' now.
“Over a period of time, the legal fraternity has evolved “birth and death jurisprudence,“ said the bench, adding, “birth certificates so obtained are mostly used for extending the date of superannuation or to set up claims of juvenility in criminal cases.“
Holding that only executive magistrates can issue such certificates, the bench directed the government to issue necessary guidelines to executive magistrates who shall obtain reports from village administrative officers or revenue inspectors and conduct inquiry before issuing certificates.
The racket works like this: `A' writes to corpora tionrevenue department saying his birth in a particular year is to be registered, and hence a certificate shall be issued. The department issues a `not traceable' certificate. Using it, `A' places an advertisement in a daily , and when no objection is received, files application in a judicial magistrate court, which directs officials to issue birth certificate bearing a particular date of birth.
The bench stumbled upon the racket after a Srivilliputtur man moved a magistrate court to obtain a birth certificate for his son, so that it could be used in a criminal case where his son was an accused. It would have helped the man's son evade life imprisonment, in the event of conviction, since he would be a `juvenile' now.
“Over a period of time, the legal fraternity has evolved “birth and death jurisprudence,“ said the bench, adding, “birth certificates so obtained are mostly used for extending the date of superannuation or to set up claims of juvenility in criminal cases.“
Holding that only executive magistrates can issue such certificates, the bench directed the government to issue necessary guidelines to executive magistrates who shall obtain reports from village administrative officers or revenue inspectors and conduct inquiry before issuing certificates.
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