Chennai: Death certificates issued by the public health department may soon have pictures of the deceased. Responding to a grievance petition from an activist, CM grievance cell has acknowledged the demand from petitioner V. Gopalakrishnan to include picture of the deceased in the death certificates. However state officials, welcoming the demand said the issue has to be finalised by the Registrar General of India and opined that the proposed synchronization of death certificates with Aadhaar cards is are also under process.
The CM cell in response to the petition said, “as per the suggestion of the petitioner to affix death person photo in death certificate necessary clarification is sought from office of Registrar General of India, New Delhi. The Registrar General of India is the authority. After the clarification received necessary action will be taken for the above matter in co-ordination with the director of public health, TN”.
“Fake death certificates is a big issue leading to double documentations in real estate sector, by affixing the picture of the deceased in the death certificates transparency can be enhanced,” said Gopalakrishnan. He also urged the government to feed Aadhaar and National Population Registry (NPR) details in birth certificates, so that the data related to an individual is not forged.
When contacted, director of public health Dr K. Kolandasamy said it’s a welcome suggestion to fix the photos in death certificates. As per the Registration of Births and Deaths Act 1969, there is no legal provisions permitting to fix photographs, but the registrar general can amend this. At the same time, the state is also working on new software and apps to incorporate the Aadhaar and NPR data with birth and death certificates. Through this synchronization, the photos and biological data can be linked to birth and death certificates, he added.
“It’s a good suggestion to have photographs in both birth and death certificates. Further birth certificates are not usually considered as ID proofs as they do not have photos and if pictures are fixed, these certificates may also enjoy the same clout like driving licence and pan cards,” said C.L. Usha, a government school teacher.
