Allahabad High Court Rules Sub-Divisional Magistrate Alone Can Issue Death Certificate for Delayed Registrations The Allahabad High Court recently ruled that under the Registration of Birth and Death Act, 1969, the Sub-Divisional Magistrate (SDM) is the sole authority to issue a death certificate if the registration of death is delayed beyond one year. The court emphasized that any attempt to bypass this statutory requirement by directing the Registrar to issue the certificate directly would undermine the purpose of the Act. This decision came in response to a petition filed by Naval Kishore Srivastava, who sought a death certificate for his first wife, Madhuri Srivastava, who died in 2001. The petitioner, who married Madhuri Srivastava in 1962, claimed she left him in the same year. He filed a divorce suit in 1970, which was rejected, and the appeal was dismissed in 1974. Despite this, the court ordered him to provide half his salary to Madhuri for several years. He later took voluntary retirement in 1985 as a Squadron Leader in the Indian Air Force. The petitioner stated that Madhuri died in 2001 while living at her parents’ house. In 2001, the petitioner married again, but the name of his second wife could not be recorded in his service records. In 2011, he applied for the deletion of his first wife’s name and the substitution of his second wife as his legally recognized spouse. When he filled out a form for his 80th birthday in 2025, he disclosed his second wife as his spouse. This prompted the Directorate of Air Veterans to request details of his family, including marriage and death certificates or a court-issued divorce decree.#allahabad_high_court #naval_kishore_srivastava #madhuri_srivastava #directorates_of_air_veterans #section_13_registration_act
