Attorney General Anil Nandlall will soon be tabling an amendment to the Births and Registration Act which will prevent Magistrates from ordering alterations to birth and death certificates without first allowing the General Registrar to defend the official record.
“There is a lacuna [gap] in the law. Currently the Act allows for a correction of clerical errors on a Birth or Death certificate based on an order by a Magistrate. The Magistrate in granting this Order is required to hear from the complainant and those responsible for making the entry,” Nandlall told Stabroek News.
He noted that the issue which his office now seeks to address is the fact that several of these Orders are granted without any representation from the Registrar.
“This allows for the Registrar to be ordered to make corrections without being afforded an opportunity to be heard in Court,” the AG lamented.
According to Nandlall, his office has been called upon to represent the Registrar in several such cases when he has been held in contempt for refusing to comply with the Order since its contents represent a “substantive variation from fact” rather than “a minor clerical error” as allowed by the law.
A legal notice appearing in yesterday’s edition of the Stabroek News details one such case where the Registrar has been ordered by Magistrate Fabayo Azore to change a date of birth from November 6, 1975 to November 6, 1974.
In an application to the High Court, the AG on behalf of the Registrar seeks to have this Order quashed or set aside on the grounds that it was granted in breach of the rules of natural justice.
“A declaration that Her Worship Magistrate Fabayo Azore had no jurisdiction to make an Order without service of the Application on the Registrar General of Births and Deaths,” is also being sought.
Nandlall repeatedly noted that what several orders have referred to as minor clerical errors are neither minor nor erroneous.
“In this case when you go to the Registrar’s record you see that the birth was actually registered in a different year so the registrar can’t just change the official record. This is not a typist error this is a substantial variation from the fact but Magistrates have been making such orders routinely and we need to amend the Act to compel the magistrate to have the registrar heard,” he said.
Other case involve a change of parents name to ones which are wildly different.
“We might have a case where someone wants to change the mother’s name from Maria Persaud to Ramrattie Singh and they produce an affidavit to the Court. The assumption is that this is the mother and you don’t expect the mother to lie, but if the Registrar can show that Maria Persaud and Ramrattie Singh are not the same person. If he can defend his record, he should be allowed to do so,” Nandlall concluded.
Currently Section 35 of the Registration of Birth and Death Act allows the Registrar General to correct any minor clerical error in a registration form, if satisfied that the error in question is genuine. It also allows for a magistrate who is apprised of the error to summon the person who made, and anyone concerned in making, the erroneous entry, or having any knowledge concerning it, and also anyone interested in the effect of it and examine those persons upon oath. Following this examination if the magistrate is satisfied that any error has been committed in the entry, they shall direct the Registrar General to correct the error.
The same section allows for the Minister to specify the errors or classes of error which shall be deemed to be minor clerical errors for the purposes of this subsection.
