Panaji: The Bombay high court directed the chief officer of Margao Municipal Council (MMC) to consider afresh an application from a woman to reconstruct her birth record.The chief officer in 2023 rejected the woman’s application for reconstruction of her birth record dating back to 1971.After the HC issued the chief officer a notice, he stated that the birth records of the 54-year-old woman were verified and that her live birth report was not traceable, as the records were destroyed.The chief officer added that birth and death registration records from 1971 to 1976 were in a mutilated condition in his office. He received confirmation from South Goa District Hospital that a record of live birth was sent to the municipality at the time.“The chief officer shall then consider the application and, since there is now a valid record of live birth furnished by the Hospicio hospital for the birth of the petitioner, the chief officer shall reconstruct the records of birth and make entry of the birth of the petitioner by following the procedure of reconstruction of records as prescribed. This shall be done within three weeks from receipt of the application,” stated justice Valmiki Menezes.“On the record of the birth of the petitioner being reconstructed for 1971, the chief officer shall make a consequent entry in the record of birth and the fresh registration of birth which was effected in the name of the petitioner shall be deleted, as obviously the petitioner cannot have two registrations of her birth in the same record. Deletion shall be effected simultaneously with the entry made on the reconstruction of record 1971,” the court stated.
