Last year's media reports on missing birth, death registration data incorrect: Registrar submits report to HC

The Office of the Registrar General of Bangladesh Birth and Death Registration has claimed that the reports published last year on various media about the disappearance of data of the Birth and Death Registration Information System (BDRIS) from its server are not accurate.

In a report submitted to the High Court on Sunday (9 July), the agency said the data were not available on the server as many of the registrars in charge at the time were unable to enter the handwritten registration data online.

The report, signed by the office's Assistant Registrar General Samiul Islam Rahad, was presented by Deputy Attorney General Kazi Mainul Hasan to the HC bench of Justice JBM Hasan and Justice Raziq-al-Jalil.

After the report was submitted, Lawyer Tanveer Ahmed told reporters, "As the HC bench found the report to be incomplete, they set 10 August as the date for the next hearing. The court has asked to give a full report within this period."

Last year, various national and international media published reports about the suffering of citizens in receiving birth certificates and the server having an inadequate number of birth registration data.

Later, Lawyer Tanveer Ahmed filed a writ in the High Court adding two published media reports.

On 29 May last year, after the preliminary hearing on the writ, the High Court ordered an investigation into complaints of missing birth and death registration data and directed the concerned to submit a report.