State, BMC, named respondents in legal notice on birth certificate corrections

Between 2024 and 2026, the BMC processed approximately 87,000 corrections, using the legacy SAP Civil Registration System software, of which 19,800 were found to be fraudulently done

MUMBAI: The founder of the Govandi Citizens Welfare Forum, advocate Faiyaz Alam Shaikh, has sent a legal notice to the registrar-general of India and the chief registrar of births and deaths, Maharashtra, regarding the freeze on corrections of birth certificates in the city since May. The state government, BMC commissioner and BJP ex-MP Kirit Somaiya are the other respondents to the notice sent on Wednesday.

State, BMC, named respondents in legal notice on birth certificate corrections

Shaikh told Hindustan Times that many Govandi residents had complained to him that children’s school admissions, work visas, passport renewals and even SIR forms were held up due to the freeze.

Between 2024 and 2026, the BMC processed approximately 87,000 corrections, using the legacy SAP Civil Registration System software, of which 19,800 were found to be fraudulently done. An SIT was set up to investigate this, but the SAP software was simultaneously frozen and the process was shifted to a central CRS portal. This led to about 5,000 bona fide corrections remaining pending, says the legal notice, pointing out that West Bengal, UP and Delhi, where such investigations into fraudulent birth certificates were on, had not stopped attending to genuine applicants.

Last month, the Bombay high court quashed the suspension of a medical officer by the BMC over alleged irregularities in birth certificates. The court stated that the doctor’s advocate could be “well placed in his submission that because a former Parliamentarian proclaimed the suspension of the petitioner, the corporation was driven to act in undue haste”. The reference was to Somaiya.

The notice cites high court judgments saying that administrative delays exceeding 30 to 45 days in rectifying statutory registers amounted to arbitrary state action. It asks for ward-level correction powers to be restored, a fast-track clearance desk to be set up, an SOP to be drawn up and political interference by Somaiya to be put an end to within 15 days.