Birth Certificate Issued Under Registration Of Births And Deaths Act Binding Unless Cancelled Or Forgery Is Proved: Allahabad High Court

The Allahabad High Court has held that the birth certificate issued under Registration of Births and Deaths Act, 1969 is valid and binding unless it is cancelled or forgery of the same is proved. While dealing with a case of admission in class VI, Justice Siddharth Nandan held “unless and until, a document which has been issued under a statutory provision, is either cancelled or an element of forgery is proved, it shall have a binding effect on the authorities; and it is not within the domain of the authorities concerned, to doubt the certificate issued under a statutory provision, on its own whims and fancies.”In the birth certificate, petitioner's date of birth was recorded as 01.07.2013. For admission in class VI in PM Shri School Jawahar Navodaya Vidyalaya, a candidate ought to be born between 01.05.2013 and 30.07.2015. Since petitioner was denied admission based on doubt cast on the birth certificate, petitioner approached the High Court.It was pleaded that without dislodging the birth certificate, petitioner could not be denied admission. Respondent relied on the report of Chief Medical Officer to state that there might be a variance of one year to 6 months in the date of birth. The Court observed that bone ossification test cannot be said to be accurate as it is only accurate upto plus minus 2 years. “It is noteworthy that the birth certificate is issued under Section 12/17 of the Registration of Births and Deaths, Act, 1969 read with Rule 8(3) of the Uttar Pradesh Registration of Births and Deaths Rules, 2002; and as such it has the presumption of its validity under law; and at no point of time the said presumption has been dislodged by the respondent and the certificate admittedly has not been cancelled.”The Court held that denying admission based on variance recorded in the CMO's report without dislodging the birth certificate was violation of right to education under the Right to Education Act, 2009. Accordingly, the Court directed that the petitioner be granted admission. Further, the Court noted that a number of such petitions were being filed before the High Court where documents were being disregarded based solely on medical reports. Accordingly, the directed that only when the following documents are not available, medical opinion can be sought:“(i) Matriculation certificate (or equivalent) issued by the competent authorities/Board.(ii) Documents evidencing date of birth entered into the school first attended by the child, duly attested by the Principal, of the said school.(iii) Birth certificate issued by the Corporation or Municipal Authority or a Panchayat.”The Court also noted that the aforesaid documents shall remain subject to verification. Accordingly, the writ petition was disposed of. Case Title: Vimal Singh v. Union Of India And 4 Others 2026 LiveLaw (AB) 223Case citation: 2026 LiveLaw (AB) 223Click Here To Read/Download Order

Birth Certificate Issued Under Registration Of Births And Deaths Act Binding Unless Cancelled Or Forgery Is Proved: Allahabad High Court

Upasna Agrawal

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