Birth, Deaths and Marriages Registration Act, 1886

(1) This Act may be called the Births, Deaths and Marriages Registration Act, 1886; and (2) It shall come into force on such day as the Central Government, by notification in the Official Gazette, directs.

This Act extends to the whole of India except [the territories which, immediately before the 1st. November, 1956, were comprised in Part B States].]

In this Act, unless there is something repugnant in the subject or context,- "sign" includes mark, when the person making the mark is unable to write his name: "prescribed" means prescribed by a rule made 9[***] under this Act: and "Registrar of Births and Deaths" means a Registrar of Births and Deaths appointed under this Act.

Nothing is this Act, or in any rule made under this Act, shall affect any law heretofore or hereafter passed providing for the registration of births and deaths within particular local areas.

All powers conferred by this Act may be exercised from time to time as occasion requires.

and appointment of registrars General (1) Each State Government. (a) shall establish a general registry office for keeping such certified copies of registers of births and deaths registers of births and deaths registered under this Act, or marriages registered under Act 3 of 18722 (to provide a form of marriage in certain cases) or the Indian Christian Marriage Act, 1872 (15 of 1872) or, beyond the local limits of the ordinary original civil jurisdiction of the High Court of judicature at Bombay, under the Parsi Marriage and Divorce Act, 1865 (15 of 1865), as may be sent to it under this Act, or under any of the three last mentioned Acts, as amended by this Act; and (b) may appoint to the charge of that office an officer, to be called, the registrar General of Births, Deaths and Marriages, for the territories under its administration.

office Each Registrar General of Births, Deaths and Marriages shall cause indexes of al the certified copies of registers sent to his office under this Act, or under Act 3 of 18722, the Indian Christian Marriage Act, 1872 (15 of 1872) or the Parsi Marriage and Divorce Act 18653 (15 of 1865) as amended by this Act, to be made and kept in his office in the prescribed form.

Subject to the payment of the prescribed fees, the indexes so made shall be at all reasonable times open to inspection by and person applying to inspect them, and copies of entries in the certified copies of the registers to which the indexes relate shall be given to all persons applying for them.

evidence A copy of an entry given under the last foregoing section shall be certified by the Registrar general of Births, Deaths and Marriages, or by an office authorised in this behalf by the State Government, and shall be admissible in evidence for the purpose of proving the birth, death or marriage to which the entry relates.

General Each registrar General of Births, Deaths and Marriages shall exercise a general superintendence over the Registrars of Births and Deaths in the territories for which he is appointed.

registrable (1) the person whose births and deaths shall, in the first instance, be registrable under this Chapter are the following, namely:- (a) in the territories to which this Act extends] the members of every race, sect or tribe to which the Indian Succession Act, 186512 (10 of 1865) applies, and in respect of which an order under section 332 of that Act is not for the time being in force, and all persons professing the Christian religion; (2) But the State Government, by notification in the Official Gazette, may extend the operation of this Chapter to any other class of persons either generally or in any local area.

Registrars for its territories The State Government may appoint, either by name or by virtue of their office, so many person as it thinks necessary to be Registrars of Births and Deaths for such local areas within the territories under its administration as it may define and, if it sees fit, for any class of persons within any part of those territories.