Barrister Nazir Ahmed :
Three dates and certificates are very important for everyone: the date of birth and birth certificate, the date of marriage and marriage certificate, and the date of death and death certificate. While the former and middle ones affect one – and, in fact, he or she deals with these – in his or her life time, the latter ones emerge when the concerned person is no more in this world. Despite the date of birth, birth certificate and marriage certificate being so important to everyone’s life, there are no proper, standard and clear enforceable procedures in Bangladesh for registering the date of birth and issuing the birth certificate and marriage certificate.
There is no consistency and transparency in registering the date of birth in Bangladesh. Consequently there is no consistency and transparency in issuing the birth certificates. As a result of this, the overwhelming majority people of Bangladesh do not or use the correct or accurate date of birth. It is often heard in Bangladesh that there are two dates of birth: one is real and the other one is certificate one! This is very unfortunate. When students enrolled in Class IX in the public secondary schools, they are required to fill in forms to appear for the Secondary School Certificate (SSC) Examination (Exams), the first public Exams. The teachers often willingly bring 2/3 years forward the year of birth of the students anticipating that the students will be able to compete maximum possible times for Bangladesh Civil Service (BCS) Exams, the most prestigious entry test for entering the public/civil service in Bangladesh. It should be noted that the age limit for appearing the BCS was 27 in the past. It was increased to 30 few years ago. As a result of this engineering and mechanism employed in relation the date of birth, the nation and its generations are put to base their future on the falsehood! There is no strict law as to how and when birth must be registered in Bangladesh. There may be some rules and regulation, but there have been no proper compliance and non compliances do not appear to have attracted any sanction from the government. A person was born in 1972, for example, and yet his date of birth could be registered in 2014 and his birth certificate could be issued in 2014! This is a very strange system. We, the British lawyers, who represent appellants in the British courts and tribunals, are often put in an awkward position because British Judges do not want to give any probative values on those birth certificates, dates of which were registered say some 42 years ago based on the information given by the very person whose birth certificate was to be issued.
Birth certificate is one of the most important documents in any person’s life. It is needed to be shown in many places for identification and documentary purposes. In the United Kingdom, parents of a child are required, under law, to register their child’s birth within a specific period, failure of which would result in prosecution or penalty. It is their legal duty. When a child is born, details of the newborn baby are automatically passed on to the relevant local Birth and Death Registry Office of the Local Authority. Therefore, the local Birth and Death Registry Office would have prior knowledge of the child being born before the parents approach the Birth Registry Office to register their child’s birth. Being a unified system, once the original birth certificate is shown for documentary purposes there has never been any dispute arisen in relation to its authenticity. This is a very clear and transparent system that has been being practised in the United Kingdom for a long period of time.
Unfortunately, there is no clear, unified and transparent system of registering the date of birth and issuing the birth certificate in Bangladesh. It appears that more than one authority, or even the hospitals or clinics, can issue birth certificates! Birth certificates issued vary from one authority to another and are different in shape, colour and style. Clinics or hospitals may confirm the delivery of the baby or at best confirm the birth of a child. How can the clinics and hospitals are allowed to issue the birth certificates? On what logic? If that is so, what is the purpose of the Birth and Death Registrar of the local authority? Clinics and hospitals are not competent authorities for issuing birth certificates. If these private and semi-government or autonomous bodies are allowed to issue birth certificates, the possibility of fraudulent activities cannot be ruled out.
Like the birth certificate, the marriage certificate is certainly one of the important documents in one’s life as well. Marriage certificates (commonly known as NIKAH NAMA in Bangladesh) are issued in Bangla by the government appointed and registered Kazi. Therefore, it needs to be translated into English by an official translator if it is to be used in the UK, USA and other English speaking countries of the world. In our professional experience we often see, Bengali texts are written by some unscrupulous Kazi and their self appointed writers in the NIKAH NAMA in so reckless and negligent way that the texts often become illegible and/or extremely difficult to understand or identify. If the writings are illegible and difficult to understand, how can an accredited professional translator translate it accurately? Do those unscrupulous Kazi or Writers have no common sense to realise that these certificates are public documents and as such these could be used in home and abroad for proper legal and documentary purposes?
Furthermore, marriage certificates issued in Bangladesh contain so much unnecessary information and irrelevant details. Hardly any country can be found in the world which gives so much detail in the marriage certificates. Many of 25 Sections/Columns in a marriage certificate are irrelevant or poorly phrased. For example, Section/Column 12 asks “the date on which matters relating to the marriage have been fixed?”, whereas in Section/Column 25 asks “how much registry fees paid?” Do these Columns/Sections really needed to be in the marriage certificate? There is a separate Column/Section for the date of the registration of marriage. If that is so, what is the necessity of Section/Column 12 which says “the date on which matters relating to the marriage have been fixed?” Underneath the Column/Section 25, there are spaces for more than eleven persons’ signatures! It looks awkward and funny.
The world is now considered to be a global village. We have to compete and come into terms with other developed or developing countries. The marriage certificate should, of course, contain some vital information and details but those information and details would have to be very important, relevant and carefully selected. It should not be a two page essay or deed. One standard page containing precise and relevant information should suffice. On the other hand, there should be a clear, unified and transparent system of registering the birth and issuing the birth certificate. Along with the unified and transparent system, there should be a strict law obliging the parents to register the date of birth of their child immediately after the child is born, failure of which should attract severe legal sanction. In addition, there should be tougher legal measures for dealing with fraudulent issuance of birth certificates and marriage certificates.
Bangladesh deserves better in many aspects. The 43 years age of Bangladesh is not to be taken lightly when people say Bangladesh will make progress slowly slowly. There must be a beginning of good things and good processes in order for Bangladesh to commence healthy progress. Enough has been done. A clear, unified and transparent system of issuing public certificates affecting all people in their lives both at home and abroad must commence now at once.
(Barrister Nazir Ahmed: a UK based Legal expert, analyst, writer and columnist. He can be contacted via e-mail: [email protected])
