Parliament Passed the Registration of Births and Deaths Bill, 2026, on Tuesday, Sending Delayed Registrations to Judicial Magistrates

The change re-routes any birth or death reported more than two years after the event to a judicial magistrate of the first class, a court-appointed officer, instead of an executive magistrate from the state administrative cadre. The Bill amends section 13(3) of the 1969 Act, splitting the previous single window for delayed registrations into two tiers. The government says the move makes delayed registration "more stringent" and encourages timely reporting.

Union home minister Amit Shah introduced the Bill in the Lok Sabha on July 24, and the Rajya Sabha cleared it on Tuesday. The amendment takes effect once the President assents and the central government notifies a date. This follows a 2023 overhaul that made birth certificates the single document for proving date and place of birth for anyone born on or after October 1, 2023, covering school admissions, driving licences, voter lists, passports, Aadhaar and other purposes.

The 2023 law also raised penalties for non-reporting, from ₹50 to ₹250 for ordinary informants and up to ₹1,000 per event for institutional actors. India registered 25.47 million births and 8.94 million deaths in 2024, with completeness at 99.1% for births and 99.4% for deaths, up from 83% and 68.2% in 2012.