Amit Shah to move birth registration bill; Rahul Gandhi to target government on exam leaks in Lok Sabha today
The Registration of Births and Deaths (Amendment) Bill, 2026 was introduced in Lok Sabha to further amend Section 13(3) of the Registration of Births and Deaths Act, 1969, making delayed registration more stringent
The Public Examinations (Prevention of Unfair Means) Amendment Bill, 2026 was considered in Lok Sabha, seeking to amend the Public Examinations (Prevention of Unfair Means) Act, 2024 with enhanced penalties for examination malpractice
The Supreme Court (Number of Judges) Amendment Bill, 2026 was also taken up for consideration, seeking to increase the sanctioned judge strength of the Supreme Court
All three bills were part of the same day's legislative business in Lok Sabha, alongside parliamentary debate on examination-related malpractice concerns
Registration of Births and Deaths Act, 1969 — Delayed Registration Procedure
The Registration of Births and Deaths Act, 1969 mandates compulsory registration of every birth and death across India, with State Governments appointing Registrars and a Chief Registrar for each state, feeding into a national civil registration database maintained by the Registrar General of India (Ministry of Home Affairs).
Key Details
- Under Section 13(3), delayed registration beyond one year of occurrence currently requires an order from a District Magistrate, Sub-Divisional Magistrate, or an authorised Executive Magistrate, after verification and payment of a prescribed fee
- The 2026 amendment proposes that registrations delayed beyond two years require an order from a Judicial Magistrate First Class instead, shifting the approving authority from the executive to the judiciary for the most delayed cases
- The Registration of Births and Deaths (Amendment) Act, 2023 had earlier made the birth certificate a single document usable as proof of date and place of birth for purposes including Aadhaar enrolment, admission to educational institutions, issuance of driving licences, voter list preparation, passport issuance, and government employment, and enabled digitisation of the national civil registration database
The 2026 amendment tightens the verification standard for long-delayed registrations, aiming to reduce fraudulent or backdated entries now that a birth certificate carries expanded evidentiary and administrative weight under the 2023 amendment.
Public Examinations (Prevention of Unfair Means) Act, 2024 — Anti-Paper-Leak Framework
The Public Examinations (Prevention of Unfair Means) Act, 2024 was India's first dedicated central law to criminalise unfair means and organised cheating in public examinations conducted by bodies such as the UPSC, SSC, Railway Recruitment Boards, IBPS, and NTA, following a series of high-profile examination paper leaks.
Key Details
- Under the 2024 Act, individual offences involving unfair means attracted imprisonment of three to five years and a fine of up to Rs 10 lakh; organised crime (paper leaks involving service providers, institutions, or groups) attracted five to ten years' imprisonment and a fine of at least Rs 1 crore, along with attachment of institutional property
- The 2026 amendment enhances these penalties: individual imprisonment raised to five to ten years (from three to five years) and fines raised to up to Rs 50 lakh (from Rs 10 lakh); for errant service providers, maximum fines raised to Rs 5 crore (from Rs 1 crore) and the debarment period from conducting public examinations extended to eight years (from four years)
- The Act's offences are cognizable, non-bailable, and non-compoundable, reflecting the seriousness assigned to examination malpractice
The amendment responds to continued concerns about examination integrity by raising deterrence thresholds beyond the 2024 baseline, particularly for organised and repeat offences.
Supreme Court (Number of Judges) Amendment Bill — Sanctioned Strength of the Apex Court
The strength of the Supreme Court (excluding the Chief Justice of India) is fixed by Parliament through ordinary legislation under Article 124(1) of the Constitution, which provides for a Chief Justice and "not more than such number of other Judges as Parliament may by law prescribe" — distinguishing this from the composition of the Court itself, which is entrenched in the Constitution.
Key Details
- Sanctioned strength has been raised multiple times since 1950: 8 judges (1950) → 11 (1956) → 14 (1960) → 18 (1977/78) → 26 (1986) → 31 (2009) → 34 (2019, via the Supreme Court (Number of Judges) Amendment Act, 2019)
- The 2026 Bill seeks a further increase in sanctioned strength, following growing pendency of cases before the Supreme Court
- Because the number of judges is set by ordinary parliamentary law rather than a constitutional amendment, it can be changed with a simple majority, unlike the composition or tenure protections for judges which have constitutional status
The bill continues a decades-long pattern of periodically expanding the Supreme Court's sanctioned strength through ordinary legislation to manage rising case pendency, most recently via the 2019 increase to 34 judges.
- Registration of Births and Deaths Act enacted: 1969; last major amendment: 2023 (Aadhaar linkage, single-document status, digitisation)
- Current delayed-registration threshold (Section 13(3)): DM/SDM/Executive Magistrate order needed after 1 year; 2026 Bill proposes Judicial Magistrate First Class order needed after 2 years
- Public Examinations (Prevention of Unfair Means) Act enacted: 2024; covers UPSC, SSC, Railway Recruitment Boards, IBPS, NTA, and central government ministries/offices
- 2024 Act penalties: individual offences — 3 to 10 years' imprisonment (senior management/service-provider culpability), fine up to Rs 1 crore; organised crime — 5 to 10 years, fine at least Rs 1 crore
- 2026 amendment proposed penalties: individual offences — 5 to 10 years' imprisonment, fine up to Rs 50 lakh; service-provider fine cap raised to Rs 5 crore; debarment period raised to 8 years
- Supreme Court sanctioned strength: 31 (2009) → 34 (2019) → proposed increase under the Supreme Court (Number of Judges) Amendment Bill, 2026
- Constitutional basis for Supreme Court strength: Article 124(1)