Death Certificate

Question: Why should a death certificate be obtained immediately? When a person dies, why should their death certificate be made right away? And if it is not made, what is the harm? And if it is made late, what is its legal standing?

Answer: Many legal proceedings are based on the death certificate. Suppose Zaid dies today, and Bakar is his heir. Bakar does not register the death for five years. What difficulties can Bakar then face? Zaid owned various properties. Haris, who was close to Zaid, learns that the death was never registered. Haris gets one of Zaid's properties transferred into his own name or someone else's name, and has it dated to a time after Zaid had physically already died.

Now Bakar finds out that Haris fraudulently got Zaid's property transferred into his name, or someone else's name, after Zaid's death. Now Bakar faces difficulties — the first thing Bakar must prove is that at the time this transaction took place, Zaid had already died. So now he will rush to get the death registered. Now, to get the death certificate, the death is being registered five years later. The court will say: you have registered the death five years later, and the person who holds the registry, or the transfer, or possession, who committed this fraud, did so four years ago — how can I accept that you are producing a death certificate made five years after the fact? This is genuine — Bakar's troubles have begun, the property has slipped out of his hands, the death was registered five years later, it gets challenged that this death certificate is forged — that he actually died four years ago, or two years ago, or three years ago.

Now Bakar has to bear the consequences. If the death had been registered immediately after it occurred, and the death certificate made, there would have been no problem at all — it would have been known at that very time, the court would have accepted it right then. Now a long process begins for Bakar to prove that Zaid died five years earlier — he will have photographs of graves taken out, he will produce a grave register if one exists in Lahore, which records that such-and-such a person's body was brought and buried — other cities do not keep such records. To prove this you will bring witnesses, they will come and testify that he died five years ago; counter-testimony will come against you, saying we also live in the same area, [saying otherwise] — the one who committed the fraud, Haris, will also bring witnesses saying we live in the same area, he died three years ago.

All these complications will now arise, which is why it is essential to get the death certificate made as soon as possible, without any delay — there are many other matters too, but get the death certificate made as soon as possible so you can avoid any difficulty. There are countless cases where, because of this death certificate issue, litigation has dragged on for twenty, twenty years.