Registrars will have to cancel birth certificates containing errors while issuing corrected ones: Karnataka High Court 

The High Court of Karnataka has directed the State government to issue appropriate orders to Registrars of Births and Deaths to cancel the earlier birth certificate while issuing a new one after correcting errors. 

The High Court of Karnataka has directed the State government to issue appropriate orders to Registrars of Births and Deaths to cancel the earlier birth certificate while issuing a new one after correcting errors. 

The court also said that the Registrars would have to give an endorsement to the applicants stating that the earlier certificate had been cancelled. The necessary details about corrections in the birth certificate and cancellation of the earlier certificate would also have to be entered in the e-janma portal, the court said.

Justice Suraj Govindaraj Issued the directions while allowing a petition filed by Syeda Afifa Aymehn of Hosapete in Vijayanagara district.

The petitioner was born in March, 1993, and all her educational certificates, Aadhaar, passport, etc. contained the correct date of birth. However, she belatedly noticed that in her birth certificate it was wrongly mentioned as April, 1993. 

Following this, she had initiated proceedings in 2020 before a civil court, which issued a direction to the Registrar to correct the error in her birth certificate. This resulted in two birth certificates in her possession.

Later, when she submitted these birth certificates for carrying out a correction in her passport, the authorities sought clarification on the two different dates of birth. Her plea for clarification was negatived by the Registrar of Births by asking her to approach the competent court for necessary directions.