From first-hand experience, I can add that even when certificates are issued, if there are clerical errors such as spelling mistakes or important details missing, the time, effort and expense to correct the mistake is inexcusable. After receiving our marriage certificate, we pointed out that the names of the groom’s parents were missing.
We were informed by the then Sub-Registrar, Shri Vernekar, that to rectify this matter, we would need to complete a further three forms and provide a further three witnesses, as this is a legal requirement and the law would not allow such a simple change to be made!
This is against a background of already providing 11 witnesses (including 5 court witnesses) for the Civil Ceremony and paying 200 rupees, non-receipted (this was in addition to the receipted Civil Registration fees already paid directly to the registration clerk at Counter 7) to complete the registration. Our advocate had told us that we had to give this clerk ‘something’ as this was the way thing work.
This second registration process took three and a half hours to complete, which totally reflects the inefficiency and incompetence of this department.
