Fearing fake certificates, Centre orders stricter scrutiny of digitised birth and death records

Published 17 July 2026 · india

Amid a surge in demand for digitised birth certificates, the office of the Registrar General of India (RGI) is implementing stringent checks to prevent fraudulent

Amid a surge in demand for digitised birth certificates, the office of the Registrar General of India (RGI) is implementing stringent checks to prevent fraudulent digitisation of old records. The RGI informed the States in June that in certain instances, the credentials of registrars have been compromised due to user IDs, passwords, or one-time passwords (OTPs) being shared with unauthorised persons. On July 6, the RGI asked States to identify “Registration Units showing unexplained spikes in registrations”. “As a result, complaints have been received regarding issuance of fake or unauthorised digitised certificates in some instances. Such incidents not only undermine the integrity of the Civil Registration System but also threaten the reliability of vital records,” the June 12 letter by A.K Pandey, Deputy Registrar General (CRS), said. On July 6, the RGI urged registration units in States to implement measures to “enhance the security, transparency, traceability, and authenticity of the digitisation process and to prevent misuse of the system”.

The measures include mandatory verification of online applications for digitisation of old birth and death certificates by the registrar against the original birth and death registers; uploading of supporting documents, including the applicant’s certificate and the relevant register page; forwarding of all applications to the district registrar for approval; submission of additional documents such as the application form when the registrar enters a request on behalf of an applicant; mandatory scrutiny and approval by the district registrar before any digitised certificate is issued; compulsory use of e-signatures by district registrars to ensure authenticity, accountability and an audit trail; and the return of approved applications to the registrar for final issuance of the digital certificate. The RGI has asked State committees to review the status of digitisation and preservation of legacy birth and death records, emphasising the need to maintain original registers and related documents securely and to ensure that all manual certificates are duly verified against the corresponding registers before digitisation.

Uptick in digital copies Due to the ongoing special intensive revision (SIR) of electoral rolls where birth certificates are among the accepted identity documents, several birth and death registration units are seeing an upsurge to get digital copies. The Registration of Births and Deaths Act, 1969, which was amended in 2023 makes online registration of births and deaths compulsory on the Central Civil Registration System (CCRS) portal. For children born on or after October 1, 2023, the digital birth certificate is the single document to prove the date of birth for various services such admission to educational institutions, government jobs, marriage registration among others. Hospitals are required to report each birth within 21 days. Earlier, States maintained their own database and shared statistics with the RGI office that functions under the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA).