The draft amendment to the Registration of Birth and Death Act has a provision to update the database of births and deaths with other databases, the Ministry of Home Affairs informed the Lok Sabha today, according to ndtv.com.

Union Minister of State for Home Nityanand Rai stated this when the Parliament passed a bill to link electoral rolls with Aadhaar.

However, the passage met with strong protests from the Opposition. "No decision on preparing a National Register of Indian Citizens (NRIC) has been taken yet," Rai said replying to a query “if the database would be used for the National Register of Citizens.”

"Following consultations with the concerned Union Ministries and Departments and all the State Governments and Union Territories, a draft amendment to the Registration of Birth & Death (RBD) Act, 1969 was placed in public domain from October 18, 2021 to December 2, 2021 for comments, which inter alia includes a provision to use the database of births and deaths to update various databases," Rai said.

In response to another question, Rai said, “As per Section 17 of the RBD Act, any person may cause a search to be made by the Registrar for any entry in a register of births and deaths and may obtain an extract from such register relating to any birth or death.”