Over 11,500 Pending Birth and Death Certificate Applications in Pune District Cause Public Hardship

Pune, 25th July 2026: More than 11,500 birth and death certificate correction applications are pending across Pune district, leading to significant inconvenience for citizens awaiting essential documents for school admissions, passport applications, and other official purposes.

According to officials, the backlog has been caused by a combination of staff shortages, increased workload, and operational limitations on the Civil Registration System (CRS) portal. District Statistical Officers have also indicated that the current system is unable to process the growing volume of applications efficiently.

Under the existing process, local registrars at municipal corporations, municipalities, and panchayat samitis are authorised to make minor corrections such as spelling mistakes and typographical errors in birth and death records. However, applications involving name changes or other major corrections are forwarded to the district level for approval.

Officials said that an increasing number of applications, including those that could be handled locally, are now being sent to the district registrar. As a result, the district office is facing a mounting backlog. Similar issues have reportedly been observed across Maharashtra.

Since June 8, all approvals related to new registrations, digitisation of older birth and death records, and the issuance of digital certificates have been routed through the Pune District Registrar’s login on the CRS portal. This centralised system has significantly increased the workload on the district office.

The delay has affected thousands of residents, with pending certificates holding up school admissions, passport processing, and several other government and legal procedures.

Prajakta Jadhav, Statistical Officer at Pune Zilla Parishad, said that the district office has informed the Maharashtra State Health Statistics Association in writing about the operational difficulties. She noted that the concentration of old records at a single approval point has increased the workload and affected routine administrative work.

District Registrar of Births and Deaths Dr. Ramchandra Hankare questioned the legal provision requiring district-level approval for these records, stating that the relevant records are not maintained at the district level. He said the approval mechanism itself needs to be reviewed to improve efficiency.

Officials believe that strengthening manpower, streamlining the approval process, and upgrading the CRS portal will be essential to clear the backlog and ensure timely delivery of birth and death certificates to citizens.