A woman has managed to obtain a death certificate for her father, who died 50 years ago, after suing the Health Ministry and the Information and eGovernment Authority (iGA).
The 51-year-old Bahraini was only a year and nine months old when her father passed away in Salmaniya Medical Complex in December 1974 following a car accident, according to lawyer Zahra Neama.
The woman found out that no death certificate was issued for her late father when she applied to be a beneficiary of his retirement salary with the Social Insurance Organisation (SIO).
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Lawyer Ms Neama
Among the documentation needed by the SIO was a death certificate. After approaching the iGA to request the document, authorities told the woman that it could only be issued with a court order.
The woman took to the Lower Civil Court and raised a suit against the Health Ministry’s Public Health Directorate, the iGA and the State Cases Authority.
In the lawsuit, she demanded that the death be added in official records.
On December 3 last year, exactly 50 years and two days after the man’s death, the civil court judge ruled to grant her the court order.
The ruling was based on legislative decree number 26 of 2000 titled ‘Regulating Procedures for Lawsuits for the Acquisition of Names and Titles’, which sets mechanisms for changing, adding or amending errors in names, changing birth dates and places in birth certificates, and proving that a birth did occur.
A committee, specifically tasked with looking into such cases, hears witnesses and reviews evidence and then writes a report detailing its opinion on whether or not requests should be granted. The cases are then directed to the civil court.
zainab@gdnmedia.bh
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