Doctors advised to refrain from issuing life certificates to strangers

Several doctors lost their licence to practice after issuing certificates which were based on fake ID papers

The Tamil Nadu Medical Council has advised registered medical practitioners to refrain from issuing life certificate to unknown persons. It has issued a six-point advisory, which officials said was necessitated as such certificates had been misused to register properties.

The advisory has cautioned that “on many occasions, an impersonator fixes his own photo with the name of a dead person or another person and walks in with fake IDs. He forges the signatures and gets the certificate.”

In the past few years, the Council had received several complaints of doctors issuing certificates to persons who had impersonated deceased persons. These doctors have had their licences suspended and prevented from practising medicine.

“Hence the certificate shall not be issued to unknown persons brought by known persons like relatives and friends – with or without IDs,” the advisory states.

The Council has pointed out that life certificate was not a medical certificate but one of determining identity that was issued to pensioners and for purpose of registration of documents to confirm if the person is alive. The same rule applies for issue of conduct certificate.

The advisory explains that the certificate should be issued by a Group ‘A’ officer only if the certifying officer personally knows the person. The document should provide details of identification marks/signature/left thumb impression of the person and affix passport size photograph with signature.