The Allahabad High Court has strongly criticized the Uttar Pradesh government’s system for issuing birth certificates, declaring it prima facie “a mess” and warning that the scheme allows “anyone at any point of time” to obtain birth certificates with fabricated details. A bench of Justice Atul Sreedharan and Justice Anish Kumar Gupta issued the remarks after examining a writ petition by a woman named Shivanki, who possessed two different birth certificates featuring entirely different dates of birth.
In court, the petitioners produced documents from the UIDAI’s regional office in Lucknow, including both birth certificates: one issued by the Registrar of Births and Deaths from a Primary Health Centre in Manauta, which listed Shivanki’s date of birth as December 10, 2007, and another issued from the Gram Panchayat in Har Singhpur, stating her date of birth as January 1, 2005. The stark discrepancy between the two certificates led the High Court to conclude that the system lacked basic integrity. The judges observed that the existence of such conflicting documents underscored how easily false information could be procured and how little safeguard existed to prevent misrepresentation. They cautioned that such certificates, once issued, carry the potential to serve as strong prima facie evidence—even in criminal prosecutions.
Given the gravity of the issue, the Court summoned the Principal Secretary of the Department of Medical and Health, placing him squarely under responsibility to address the systemic breakdown. The Court directed him to file a detailed affidavit explaining the state of affairs in his department, specifically how such divergent birth certificates are being issued and what checks are—or are not—in place to prevent fraud. The Bench further instructed that the affidavit must outline the current mechanisms, if any, used to ensure that only one birth certificate is ever issued per person, along with any remedial measures the department proposes to adopt to correct the anomaly.
The Court made it clear that if the existing system is indeed broken, the Principal Secretary ought to propose immediate corrective action. In its order, the bench demanded clarity on how the department would prevent unauthorized or fraudulent issuance of certificates in the future. The Court emphasized that it expects a detailed plan to guarantee that individuals cannot obtain multiple certificates with inconsistent data. The matter is now due for a fresh hearing on December 10.
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