Aadhaar will be required for death certificates, Twitter users crack jokes

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Aadhaar

NEW DELHI: Aadhaar numbers will be required for issuing death certificates from October 1, a government notification said.

The notification by the Office of the Registrar General, which functions under the home ministry, said an applicant is required to provide Aadhaar number or enrolment ID Number (EID) of the deceased and other details as sought in the application for death certificate for the purpose of establishing the identity of the deceased.

However, if the applicant is not aware of the Aadhaar number or EID of the deceased, he or she will be required to provide a certificate that the deceased person did not possess Aadhaar number to the best of his or her knowledge, the notification said.

The use of Aadhaar for the applicants of death certificate will result in ensuring accuracy of the details provided by the relatives, dependents, acquaintances of the deceased.

“It will provide an effective method to prevent identity fraud,” it said.

The directive would be applicable for the residents of all states except Jammu and Kashmir, Assam and Meghalaya, for which a date would be notified separately.

“The Aadhaar number will be required for the purpose of establishing the identity of the deceased for the purpose of death registration with effect from October 1,” according to the notification.

The production of Aadhaar number will also help in recording the identity of the deceased person. Further, it will obviate the need for producing multiple documents to prove the identity of the deceased person.

The Registrar General has directed all states and Union Territories to ensure compliance by the registration authorities concerned and send a confirmation on or before September 1.

The notification also warned that if any false declaration is given by the applicant, it will be treated “as an offence” according to the provisions of the Aadhaar Act and the Registration of Birth and Death Act.

The applicant’s Aadhaar number will also be collected along with the Aadhaar number of the spouse or parents of the deceased.

The office of the Registrar General is the central authority to coordinate and unify the activities of chief registrar of birth and death in states and Union Territories.

This came after the publicity wing of the Modi government, PIB, publicly contradicted the PTI story. The PIB’s tweets sad, “Attn all media : with reference to @PTI_News story which says #Aadhaar number is mandatory for registering death of an individual. @PTI_News story is totally incorrect. They have since revised it. See correct version on PIB website. Use of the word “mandatory” by @PTI_News in the story is totally incorrect, as it is not mandatory.”

The news agency, however, did not make too many changes in its original report. The report clearly stated that the Aadhaar will effectively be mandatory to obtain a death certificate even though the government had contradicted it publicly.

This did not stop Twitter users from posting funny tweets mocking the government’s decision.

(With PTI inputs)