The date of death in a certificate should reflect the expiry of seven years from when a person was reported missing, rather than the date of the court decree.

O R D E R

This writ petition is filed for a direction to rectify the death certificate of the husband of the petitioner with reference to the entry relating to the date of death as 01.03.2019 instead of 07.11.2023 and to further carry out the correction in the death certificate.

2. Heard, Mr.R.Thirumoorthy, Learned Counsel for the petitioner and Dr.S.Suriya, Learned Additional Government Advocate appearing on behalf of the respondents.

3. Upon hearing the learned counsel for the petitioner and perusing the affidavit filed in support of the writ petition, the grievance of the petitioner is that the petitioner's husband went missing on 01/03/2012. Accordingly, a complaint was also lodged in Crime No.877 of 2014. Since he was unheard of for a period more than seven years, the petitioner filed Civil Suit in O.S.No.191 of 2022 on the file of the District Munsif, Chengalpattu and by a judgement and decree dated 07.11.2023, the suit decreed by declaring that the said Mr.M.Arumugam, Son of late Munusamy is legally dead, as his whereabouts are not known for more than 7 years from 01.03.2012. On the basis of the decree, a death certificate is also issued. In the death certificate, the date of death is mentioned as 07.11.2023, that is the date of the decree. The Learned Counsel submits that the date of death should be mentioned as the date on which the seven years expired, which would be 01.03.2019.

4. The learned Additional Government Pleader appearing on behalf of the respondents would place strong reliance on the judgment of the Hon'ble Supreme Court of India in L.I.C of India vs. Anuradha reported in 2004 (2) CTC

552. Reliance is made to paragraph No.16 which is extracted hereunder.

“16. We cannot, therefore, countenance the view taken by the High Court in either of the two appeals that on the expiry of seven years by the time the issue came to be raised in the Consumer Forum or civil court and evidence was adduced that the person was not heard of for a period of seven years by the wife and/or family members of the person then not only could the death be presumed but it could also be assumed that the presumed death had synchronised with the date when he was reported to be missing or that the date and time of death could be correlated to the point of time coinciding with the commencement of calculation of seven years backwards from the date of initiation of legal proceedings. In order to successfully maintain the claim for benefit under the insurance policies, it is necessary for the policy to have been kept alive by punctual payment of premiums until the claim was made. The appellant LIC was justified in turning down the claims by pleading that the policies had lapsed and all that could be paid to the claimants was the paid-up value of the policies.”

5. On a perusal of the said judgment, it is a case that was relating to non-renewal of the policy and by pleading a particular date of death, whether the non-renewal and non-payment of premium could be justified or not was considered by the Hon'ble Supreme Court of India and the Hon'ble Supreme Court held that such a date of death exactly on the fall of the seven years, cannot be pleaded with reference to the said facts and therefore, held that such a view cannot be countenanced.

6. As far as the instant case is concerned, this is a case where we are concerned about the date of death that should be mentioned in the death certificate issued by the authorities pursuant to the Civil Court Decree. Whether the date on which the seven years period expired from the missing date or whether the date of decree or whether the date of issuance of death certificate should be mentioned is the q