Living Person Can’t Be Deprived Benefit Of Death Certificate Of Dead: Karnataka HC Directs BBMP To Issue Death Certificate Of Employee Washed Away In Heavy Rain
The Karnataka High Court in a case has held that a living person cannot be deprived of a benefit of death certificate of a dead person and directed Bruhath Bangalore Mahangara Palike (BBMP) to issue death certificate of an employee who got washed away in heavy rain while working in a stormwater drain.
The Court was deciding a writ petition filed by a woman who was the wife of the deceased employee. She prayed for the appropriate directions from the court and to quash the endorsement issued by the Health Officer, BBMP.
A Single Bench of Justice Suraj Govindaraj noted, “The apprehension on part of the respondent that if the husband of the petitioner were to return alive at a later point of time, the death certificate would amount to a false death certificate is again a baseless contention which is required to be rejected. It only appears that the corporation is clutching at straws to try and justify its inaction. If at all the husband of the petitioner were to return alive, the respondent can always cancel the death certificate. Merely because there is such an apprehension, a living person cannot be deprived of a benefit of a death certificate of a person who is dead.”
The Bench said that the Corporation authorities cannot choose to keep quiet and do nothing and thereby deprive the petitioner of the death certificate of her husband.
Advocate Keshava Murthy B. appeared for the petitioner while Advocate K.V. Mohan Kumar appeared for the respondents.
Facts of the Case -
The petitioner’s husband, an excavator operator with BBMP, was washed away in heavy rain while working in a stormwater drain in 2017. Pursuant thereto, the Deputy Commissioner (Administration) of BBMP had ordered for payment of compensation of Rs. 10 lakhs which was paid to the petitioner and an FIR was registered. The Police Station issued an endorsement that the body of the husband of the petitioner was not found and the petitioner having been requesting for the issuance of a death certificate in respect of her husband, was before the High Court.
The counsel for the petitioner submitted that the death of the petitioner’s husband was accepted by the respondent authorities themselves by making payment of compensation amount. On the other hand, the counsel for BBMP submitted that there was a procedure required to be followed for the purpose of issuance of death certificate inasmuch as in terms of Rule 7 of Karnataka Registration of Births and Deaths Rules 1999.
The High Court after considering the submissions made by the counsel for parties observed, “This is a peculiar case where the husband of the petitioner is stated to have been washed away in heavy rain while carrying out work for respondent in repairing a stormwater drain. … Admittedly, the petitioner did not expire in a hospital; hence it is a certificate in Form 4A which is required to be issued by a doctor.”
The Court said that the petitioner has been deprived of a death certificate for the last six years and that the issuance of both birth and death certificate has civil consequences.
“When there is no body which is available, the question of respondent insisting for a certificate in terms of Form 4A would be completely illogical, the same can never be satisfied. Insistence on the same knowing fully well that it can never be satisfied has caused grave injustice to the petitioner (no pun intended). … without such death certificate, the petitioner cannot take up activities which require the production of a death certificate”, further noted the Court.
The Court also said that the authorities cannot act in a pedantic manner giving high preference to procedure when the substantial injustice could be caused by doing so.
“Procedure has been often said is only an handmaiden of justice and as such all procedures are to yield to the greater cause of justice and not cause injustice”, added the Court.
Accordingly, the High Court allowed the writ petition and directed the authority to issue necessary death certificate within 30 days.
Cause Title- Saraswathi S P v. The Commissioner & Ors. (Neutral Citation: 2023:KHC:28065)
