R.Sudharma v. The Director Of Health Services And Others

IN THE HIGH COURT AT CALCUTTA

[ CIRCUIT BENCH AT PORT BLAIR *** WPA/901/2023 R. Sudharma Vs.

The Director of Health Services and Others Mr. Ananda Haldar ... for the petitioners Mr. Shatadru Chakraborty Mr. Dibesh Dwivedi ... for the Administration Mr. Sudarsan ... for the pvt.respondent September 20, 2023 [SR] Item No.13 Both the petitioner as well as the private respondent raises the claim as legally wedded widow of the deceased employee which appears to be a foundation of the dispute. The deceased employee availed a loan facility from the Bank and the EMI was being debited from the bank account of the said deceased maintained for the deposit of the salary. Since EMI of the particular month was bounced, the employer i.e.

the Administration was approached by the Bank to ascertain whether the salary has been credited in the said account and it was divulged to the Bank that the said employee has died and, therefore, there is no remittance of salary in the salary account. The petitioner approached the Bank for liquidation of the loan amount and came to know that One Time Settlement (OTS) facility can be availed of which provides a payment of 25% of the outstanding amount of loan.

as the death certificate is required to be appended to the application.

The allegation made against the Administration is that there is a denial to issue a death certificate which impedes the availing of the facility of the Bank in liquidating the remaining loan amount.

The birth and death of every individual of the country is being recorded by maintaining a record.

I do not find any fetter in the rules or the statutory provisions that the authority can deny a person seeking the death certificate to be issued to him/her, more particularly, when two persons claiming themselves to the widows of the deceased.

There is no embargo created in the statute which prevents issuance of the death certificate to a person applying therefor. Section 8 of the Births, Deaths and Marriages Registration Act, 1886 provides that any person applying to have the inspection of the indexes maintained for such purpose may be permitted to inspect the same and a copy of the entries in the certified copy of the registers shall be given to all such persons. The said Act of 1886 had not been repealed on promulgation of the Registration of Births and Deaths Act, 1969 where in section 29 clearly provides that the said Act shall not be construed in derogation of the provision of the Act of 1886.

Thus it is exposit that the authorities should not deny the certified copy of the death certificate on the ground that she is not a legally wedded wife of the deceased.

The death certificate neither establishes or recognizes the right as an heir nor creates any entitlement into a person over

the estate of the deceased. It is a document relating to recording of the death of a person on a particular date and place and, therefore, there cannot be any apprehension in the mind of the Administration that the moment the two persons claiming themselves to be the respective widows of the deceased applied for death certificate it cannot be issued to either of them unless such dispute is resolved.

The writ petition is thus disposed of by directing the Administration to provide the death certificate of the deceased employee, if any application is made in this regard and if the application has already been made, the authority shall ensure that the death certificate shall be handed over to the applicant within 72 hours from the date of an application or from the date of communication of this order whichever is later. No order as to costs.

Urgent Photostat certified copies of this order, if applied for, be made available to the parties subject to compliance with requisite formalities.

( Harish Tandon, J. )