New Delhi: The Rajya Sabha on Tuesday passed the Registration of Births and Deaths (Amendment) Bill, 2026 by a voice vote amid continuous uproar and sloganeering by Opposition members.
The Bill had already been cleared by the Lok Sabha on July 31.
After the passing of the Bill, Deputy Chairman Harvansh Naryan Singh adjourned the House till Wednesday.
When the House reassembled at 2 p.m., the Deputy Chairman called Minister of State for Home Affairs Nityanand Rai to move the motion for consideration of the Bill.
After the introduction, the Deputy Chairman allowed Leader of Opposition Mallikarjun Kharge to speak.
Kharge said the only way to bring order in the House was for the Prime Minister and the Home Minister to come and make a statement. However, the Chair did not permit him to continue and called Fulo Devi Netam of Congress from Chhattisgarh to speak on the Bill.
Netam insisted that the Home Minister must be present in the House as the Bill pertains to his department.
The Deputy Chairman repeatedly asked her to confine her remarks to the Bill, but she continued demanding the presence of the Home Minister.
The Chair then interrupted her and invited Darshana Singh of the BJP from Uttar Pradesh to speak.
Tiruchi Siva of the DMK from Tamil Nadu also raised the issue of the Home Minister’s absence during discussion on an important Bill related to his Ministry.
The Deputy Chairman directed him to speak only on the Bill and did not allow him to proceed further, calling Santrupt Mishra of the BJD from Odisha instead.
Throughout the proceedings, Opposition members kept up their sloganeering.
Several other members participated in the truncated debate. Those who spoke included Meda Raghunadha Reddy of the YSRCP (Andhra Pradesh), Dr M. Thambidurai and Dr M. Dhanpal of the AIADMK (Tamil Nadu), Ravi Chandra Vaddiraju of the BRS (Telangana), Pramod Boro of the United People’s Party Liberal (Assam), Biswajit Sinha of the BJP (West Bengal), and Jyoti Nagnath Waghmare of the Shiv Sena (Maharashtra).
A.A. Rahim of the CPI(M) and Santosh Kumar P. also questioned the absence of the Home Minister.
Santosh Kumar P. remarked that the Home Minister was supposed to move the Bill and later said, “Home Minister is the subject of the Bill.”
The Deputy Chairman, however, directed him to stick to the subject and invited Sadhna Singh of the BJP from Uttar Pradesh.
As the din intensified, many interventions were drowned out.
V. Sivadasan of the CPI(M) opposed the Bill.
Responding to the debate, Minister of State for Home Affairs Nityanand Rai said the legislation seeks to ensure registration of every birth and death across the country.
The Registration of Births and Deaths (Amendment) Bill, 2026 amends the Registration of Births and Deaths Act, 1969. It introduces a stricter two-tier system for delayed registrations.
Registrations delayed by one to two years will continue to require an order from the district magistrate, sub-divisional magistrate or an authorised executive magistrate. However, for delays exceeding two years, the order will now have to be issued only by a Judicial Magistrate of the First Class.
The change shifts authority for very late registrations from the executive to the judiciary, with the stated objective of preventing fake records and improving the accuracy and reliability of India’s civil registration and population data.
(IANS)
