Birth certificates of West Khasi Hills residents to be issued at Shillong
NONGSTOIN: Parents of new born children are helplessly infuriated in West Khasi Hills District over the verbal directive of the Judicial Magistrate of the District Court at Nongstoin that Birth Certificates would be issued from the Office of the District Council (Judiciary Branch) at Shillong.
S R Kharbani, a parent who visited the District Court to pursue his son’s Birth Certificate was shell shocked when he was informed by the Judicial Magistrate of the Court that he would have to go to Shillong to obtain one. Kharbani told The Shillong Times, “I don’t understand that when a District Court has been set up at Nongstoin and has competent judges and lawyers, why does one have to be harassed to go to Shillong simply to get a Birth Certificate. Does it mean that the lawyers at Nongstoin are not competent enough to issue the simplest of certificates? Earlier, in the absence of a District Court, we had to simply meet the Judicial Magistrate and get papers signed from him and the certificate was in our hands. After the District Court came to Nongstoin, we had to get an affidavit signed by an advocate and then meet the Judicial Magistrate, which was still okay. But now, if a child is born in Nongstoin, his or her parents have to go all the way to Shillong to get a Birth Certificate. How ridiculous is that.”
Speaking to the DC, West Khasi Hills District on the issue, S Kharlyngdoh said, “Post the separation of the Judiciary from the Executive, certain subjects were allotted to the judiciary, issuing of Birth Certificates being one of them. Following the separation I would not be able to comment of the issue as it does not come under my ambit of affairs.”
An advocate in the District Court said that so far no official orders regarding the issuance of Birth Certificates from Shillong had been received by him. He said he came to know of the matter from the parent, who had informed him that the Judicial Magistrate had told the parent to go to Shillong to obtain a Birth Certificate.
Parents of Nongstoin has urged the High Court at Shillong and all the officials concerned to look into the plight of the common people of West Khasi Hills District as visiting Shillong for a mere Birth Certificate would prove an expensive affair. Jimykimbatstar Wahlang, a parent said, “How can we go to Shillong for obtaining just a Birth Certificate when we find it financially difficult to visit Shillong even when we are seriously sick. This step by the Court would mean that children of the poor people of West Khasi Hills District would no longer have Birth Certificates.”