KARNATAKA

Wrong spelling of parents’ names in birth

register can be corrected by registrar: HC
BENGALURU,  MARCH 22, 2019 23:48 IST

The Karnataka High Court has held that the Registrar of Births and Deaths can
carry out corrections to the spelling of names of even the child’s parents, and
there is no restriction in law for submitting applications for correcting wrong
entries in the birth register.

Justice S. Sunil Dutt Yadav has passed an order while quashing an

endorsement given by Registrar of Births and Deaths, Bruhat Bangalore
Mahanagara Palike, rejecting an application made by the father and mother of a
child seeking corrections in the spelling of their names 10 years after the
issuance of birth certificate of their son.

The birth certificate, issued in 2008, had mentioned ‘Sandeep Das’ instead of
‘Sanjib Das’, and ‘Beena Das’ instead of ‘Bina Das’, and the couple filled an
application in 2018 for correcting the spelling by submitting copies of their
Aadhaar, PAN, and educational records of their son. The Registrar had rejected
the application stating that there weren’t sufficient documents to establish that
“both names is of the same person”. “Any entry other than the name of the
person who is born, which may find a place in the register, would be an entry
capable of being corrected in terms of the power conferred under Section 15 of
the Registration of Births and Deaths Act,” The names of the parents of the
person who is born are also relevant entries and could be stated to be ancillary
to the main entry i.e., the name of the person who is born. Hence, the power of
Section 15 of the Act would extend to rectifying the entries other than that of
the person who is born which is found in the register, the court observed. The
court said “the nature of correction that is sought, being a spelling error, would
also be an error that could be described to be an error in form as referred to
under Section 15 of the Act. The Rule 11(4) of the Karnataka B and D Rules is
also clear and provides for rectification of the entry if it is found to be
‘erroneous in substance’ and could be made in the manner prescribed.”

The court also said that there is no restriction in the Act for making application
for correcting such entries in the register.