Mumbai: The Maharashtra Government has announced a statewide crackdown to cancel thousands of birth and death certificates issued solely on the basis of Aadhaar. This comes after incidents and cases of widespread fraud involving forged documents to obtain government benefits came to light. In some cases, fraud also involved in cases like encroach land, facilitate activities posing national security risks. Fourteen districts have been identified as where majority of frauds have happened. These include Amravati, Akola, Sillod, Sambhajinagar city, Latur, Anjangaon Surji, Achalpur, Pusad, Parbhani, Beed, Gevrai, Jalna, Ardhapur and Parli.
Revenue Minister Chandrashekhar Bawankule confirmed that the campaign aims to recover all defective certificates and delete their entries from the Civil Registration System portal. According to the circular, Aadhaar cannot be treated as standalone proof of date or place of birth. This aligns with central government guidelines, which clearly state that Aadhaar is not to be used as evidence for establishing birth information in any legal or official matter. According to the directive, Certificates issued only based on Aadhaar are to be cancelled immediately, and original documents must be recovered from beneficiaries. If a beneficiary cannot be traced or fails to surrender the certificate, police assistance must be sought, and the individual may be declared absconding.
A 16-point verification procedure has now been issued to all Divisional Commissioners, District Collectors, Tehsildars and urban local bodies.
Officials have also been instructed to verify delayed birth entries issued without proper Tehsildar approval. Any certificate found to be invalid must be cancelled.
Applications suspended across the state must now be reviewed under the Public Health Department's rules, and discrepancies between an application and the Aadhaar date of birth will lead to immediate FIR registration.
The government has clarified that the campaign will continue until all fraudulent or improperly issued certificates are cancelled, recovered and documented under the revised verification protocol.
