Births and Deaths Registration Act, 1874

Correction of errors in registers.

36. With regard to the correction of errors in registers of birth and deaths, it shall be enacted as follows :

(1.) No alteration in any such register shall be made except as authorised by this Act :

(2.) Any clerical error which may from time to time be discovered in any such register may be corrected by any person authorised in that behalf by the Registrar General, subject to the prescribed rules :

(3.) An error of fact or substance in any such register may be corrected by entry in the margin (without any alteration of the original entry) by the officer having the custody of the register, upon payment of the appointed fee and upon production to him by the person requiring such error to be corrected of a statutory declaration setting forth the nature of the error and the true facts of the case, and made by two persons required by this Act to give information concerning the birth or death with reference to which the error has been made, or in default of such persons then by two credible persons having knowledge of the truth of the case :

(4.) Where an error of fact or substance (other than an error relating to the cause of death) occurs in the information given by a coroner's certificate concerning a dead body upon which he has held an inquest, the coroner, if satisfied by evidence on oath or statutory declaration that such error exists, may certify under his hand to the officer having the custody of the register in which such information is entered the nature of the error and the true facts of the case as ascertained by him on such evidence, and the error may thereupon be corrected by such officer in the register by entering in the margin (without any alteration of the original entry) the facts as so certified by the coroner.

Registration of Births and Deaths at Sea.