K’taka HC Directs Implementation of E-KYC to Ensure Accurate Death Certificates

The Karnataka High Court has directed the Chief Commissioner of Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) and the Secretary of e-Governance to establish a system for verifying the identity of deceased individuals based on e-KYC, similar to the usage of Aadhaar.

The court emphasized the necessity of this system to prevent errors in the details entered by hospitals and during the issuance of death certificates.

A bench of Justice Suraj Govindaraj passed the direction on a petition filed by Sai Lakshmi, who sought rectification of errors in her husband’s death certificate.

Lakshmikantha S P, a primary school assistant master in Bagepalli, Chikkaballapura district, passed away on November 22, 2022, at Jayadeva Institute of Cardiology.

The hospital registered the death on November 30, 2022, and BBMP issued the death certificate on December 9, 2022.

However, the death certificate contained several discrepancies, including the mother’s name as “Vijaya Lakshmi Kantha” instead of “Vijaya Lakshmi,” the father’s name as “late P Reddanna” instead of “late Peddanna,” and the wife’s name as “Peddanna” instead of “Sai Lakshmi.” The woman’s application for correction was rejected on the grounds that the details were entered by the hospital, and correction required a court order. She then approached the High Court with a petition.

The High Court observed that the current process of considering entries made by hospitals as sacrosanct could lead to anomalies and misuse. Therefore, the court directed the implementation of a system for e-verification of all deaths. The court also stressed the need for digitized and credentialized birth and death certificates to enable easy e-verification, including use in applications like DigiLocker.

Considering the digitization of human life and the reliance on electronic and digital data, the court acknowledged the possibility of genuine data entry errors that need rectification by concerned officers, rather than citizens approaching a court of law. The court scheduled a relisting of the matter on December 14, 2023, for the Chief Commissioner of BBMP and the Secretary of e-Governance to file a compliance report.

In the specific case of Lakshmikantha’s death certificate, the High Court directed the Joint Director (Statistical), Births and Deaths, and Assistant Joint Director (Births and Deaths) of BBMP to consider Sai Lakshmi’s application for corrections and issue a fresh death certificate within 20 days.