Last updated: March 5th, 2020 5:25 PM

Meghalaya Death Certificate

In India, it is compulsory to register every birth and death under “Registration of Births and Deaths Act” of 1969. The death certificate is more often the only source of information that consists of the mortality data of the dead person. Hence, it is a reliable document used as proof for various legal purposes like it. The Government of Meghalaya has facilitated a well-organized system for its citizens to register the event of death. In this article, we look at the procedure for obtaining a Meghalaya death certificate in detail.

Purpose of Registering the Death

It is necessary to register the death of a person immediately on the occurrence of the event for various purposes. Some of them are as follows.

• Death certificate legally confirms that a person is dead.
• To relieve the deceased from social, legal and official obligations, the death certificate must be submitted.
• To enable the nearest family member of the deceased to claim pension, insurance, and other benefits.
• The statistical data of the number of deaths registered helps to prevent scandals in voting in elections and receiving public benefits.
• In case of a widow or widower, the death certificate of the former partner should be produced for future marriage.

Eligibility Criteria

The State Government of Meghalaya issues the Certificate of death for a deceased person if he/she is a permanent resident of Meghalaya.

Registration of the Death

In India, it is compulsory as per the Registration of Births and Deaths Act, 1969 to register every death within 21 days of its incidence with the concerned State/UT Government. Depending on the place where death has occurred, the respective person should report the event in the prescribed form (Form no. 2). The District/Town Registrar is the responsible person to register the death based on the reporting.

Responsible Persons:

The person responsible for reporting the death of a person is below in a table.

S. No	Place of Occurrence	Persons required to report
1.	The event occurred in the household	Head of the household or the nearest relative present in the house
2.	The event occurred in any medical institutions	Medical Officer In charge of the institution like a hospital, nursing home etc.
3.	The event occurred in any other public place.	The headman of the village in case of a rural area and the in-charge of the police station in case of other areas

Documents Required

The following documents must be submitted to get the death certificate.

• Death report from the concerned person as mentioned under ‘Responsible Persons’ in the prescribed format (Form 2).
• Medical Certificate from the chief medical officer
• Proof of birth of the deceased (Birth certificate)
• Proof of identity of the deceased (Ration Card)
• Post-mortem report if death caused by an accident or criminal activity.
• An affidavit mentioning the date and time of death if registered late (after 1 year).

Offline Application Procedure

E-District Meghalaya is an online portal that offers various online services for its citizens. However, the facility of registering birth and death online has not yet been incorporated in the online services. Currently, the citizens can register the birth and death in offline mode only. Step 1: The applicant can collect the prescribed forms to report death and the medical certificate for non-institutional deaths from the respective Municipal Corporation office or can download from the copy of each provided below. Step 2: Provide the personal details of the deceased such as name, Date & place of death, age, marital status, occupation, religion etc. The guidelines to fill the form for certain entries are below. Guidelines: 

• In the Address section Address of the husband/ late husband in case of married woman/widow, the parent in the case of a child, and deceased if independent, are to be given.
• The cause of death should be selected from the list of important causes of death if not medically certified.
• If the deceased was over 1 year of age, give the age in complete years. If the deceased was under 1 year of age, give an age in completed months and if below 1 month, give the age in the completed number of days and if below 1 day in hours.
• If the person is a non-worker, insert the word “NIL” in the column for occupation.
• Please tick mark the number of days within which the certificate is required.

Step 3: On duly filling the form, attach the sufficient documents and submit to the authority office during working hours. Step 4: An enquiry will take place by the competent authority. After the police verification, the issuing authority will issue the certificate. Step 5: The applicant can visit the Municipal Corporation and can collect the certificate.

Processing Time

The application for the requested certificate will be processed and issued to the applicant after 7 days.

Fees

The health officer issues the prescribed form to report the death free of cost. The fee for the certificate varies depending on the days within which the applicant requires the certificate.

1. If the applicant requires the certificate within 24 hours, i.e. on the same day – Rs.10
2. If the applicant requires the certificate after 3 days – Rs.25
3. If the applicant requires the certificate after 7 days – Rs.75

Delayed Death Registration

As per the law, every death should be registered within 21 days of the incident:

1. Any information of death that is given to the Registrar after the specified period, but within thirty days of its incidence, a late fee should be paid on registration as prescribed.
2. Any delayed information of death given to the Registrar after thirty days, but within one year of its occurrence will be registered only with the written permission of the approved authority along with a prescribed late fee. The applicant should produce an affidavit before a notary public or any other officer authorized by the State Government in this behalf.
3. Any Birth or Death that has not been registered within one year of its incidence will be registered only on order made by a Magistrate of the first class or a Presidency Magistrate after verifying the correctness of the Birth or Death and on payment of the prescribed fee.
4. Any person who fails to register the death within the specified period, action may be taken on his part for not registering without any discrimination.

Correction or Cancellation of Entry in the Death Register

Under the rules made by the State Government, the Registrar is responsible for correcting or cancelling any entry in the register of births and deaths if any entry is proved to be wrong or has been improperly or fraudulently entered. In such circumstances, the Registrar may correct the error in such entries or can cancel the entry without changing it. The entry that has been corrected or cancelled will be signed with the date of correction or cancellation.