Chapter XX VITAL STATISTICS

Registration of births and deaths: Subject to the provisions of the Registration of Births and Deaths Act, 1969 (18 of 1969), the Board of Councillors shall cause registration of births and deaths taking place within the municipal area and extracts of information therefrom shall be supplied, on application, in such form of a certificate and on payment of such fees as may be determined by regulations.

Information of births: It shall be the duty of the father or the mother of every child born within the municipal area or, in default of the father or the mother, of any relation of the child living in the same premises or, in default of such relation, of the person having charge of the child to give, to the best of his or her knowledge and belief, to the officer empowered in a municipal area in this behalf, within twenty one days of such birth, information containing such particulars as may be required under the Registration of Births and Deaths Act, 1969: Provided that-

1. (a) in the case of an illegitimate child, no person shall, as father of such child, be required to give any information under this Act containing the particulars of birth of such child, and the officer empowered under this section shall not enter in the register name of any person as father of such child except at the joint request of the mother and of the person acknowledging himself to be the father of such child; and such person shall, in such case, sign the register together with the mother;
2. (b) a person required to give information only in default of some other person shall not be bound to give such information if he believed and had reasonable grounds for believing that such information had been given;
3. (c) when a child is born in a hospital or a nursing home or a maternity home, none but the officer-in-charge thereof shall be bound to forward forthwith to the officer empowered under this section a report of such birth in such time and in such form as may, from time to time, be specified by the State Government.

Information respecting finding a new-born child: In case any new-born child is found exposed, it shall be the duty of any person finding such child or of any person in whose charge such child may be placed to give, to the best of his knowledge and belief, to the officer empowered under section 316, within eight days of finding of such child, such information containing the particulars of birth of such child as such person possesses.

Information regarding death: It shall be the duty of the nearest relation present at the time of the death or in attendance during the last illness of any person dying within the municipal area and, in default of such relation, of any person present or in attendance at the time of the death and of the occupier of the premises in which, to his knowledge, the death took place and, in default of the person hereinbefore mentioned, of each inmate of such premises and of the undertaker or other person causing the corpse of the deceased person to be disposed of to give, to the best of his knowledge and belief, to the officer specially empowered in this behalf for the area within which the death took place, information containing such particulars as may be required under the Registration of Births and Deaths Act, 1969: Provided that-

1. (a) if the cause of death is known to be dangerous disease, the information as aforesaid shall be given within twelve hours of its occurrence;
2. (b) if the death of any person occurs in a hospital or a nursing home or a maternity home, it shall be the duty of none but the medical officer or other officer-in-charge thereof to forward forthwith a report of such death in such form as may, from time to time, be specified by the State Government.

Medical practitioner to certify cause of death: In the case of a person who had been attended in his last illness by a duly qualified medical practitioner, such practitioner shall, within three days of his becoming cognizant of the death of such person, sign and forward to the officer specially empowered in this behalf a certificate of the cause of death of such person in such form as may, from time to time, be specified by the State Government, and the cause of death as stated in such certificate shall be entered in the register together with the name of the certifying medical practitioner.

Duties of police in regard to unclaimed corpse: It shall be the duty of the police to convey every unclaimed corpse to a registered burial or burning ground or other place for disposal of the dead or to a duly appointed mortuary and to inform thereafter the officer specially empowered in this behalf within whose jurisdiction such corpse was found.

Sextons, etc., not to bury, etc., corpse: No sexton or keeper of a registered burial or burning ground or other place for disposal of the dead, whether situated within the municipal area or not, shall bury, burn or otherwise dispose of or allow to be buried, burnt or otherwise disposed of any corpse of unclaimed dead body unless such corpse is accompanied by a certificate signed by a police officer or any other officer authorised by the State Government in this behalf.