This guide is for anyone who has no birth certificate at all. That is common for people born in rural India before civil registration became strict, or whose birth was simply never recorded. Here is the short answer: you do not need a birth certificate to get an Indian passport. Since the passport rule changes announced in December 2016, you can prove your date of birth with any one of eight documents, such as Aadhaar, PAN, a voter ID, a driving licence or a school certificate. A Non-Availability Certificate, or NABC, and late birth registration are needed only when none of those documents exists, or when another authority insists on a real birth certificate.
First, one key difference. If your birth was registered but the office is sitting on your certificate or wrongly refused it, a record does exist, so you file an RTI for a birth certificate to pull it out. This page is the opposite case: no record was ever created, so there is nothing to extract. You either use another date-of-birth proof, or you create a fresh record through late registration.
Run this quick check before you spend a rupee or a day of leave.
A Non-Availability Certificate, also called a Non-Availability of Birth Record certificate or NABC, is an official statement from the local Registrar of Births and Deaths that a search of the birth register found no entry for you. It is issued by the same municipal, panchayat or registrar office, empowered under the Registration of Births and Deaths Act, 1969, that would otherwise have issued your birth certificate. The right to have the register searched sits in Section 17 of that Act.
An NABC is not a birth certificate. It does not certify your date of birth. It only certifies that no record exists. That is why most authorities ask for an NABC together with an affidavit or another dated document.
Tip: Keep two or three self-attested copies of every ID and of the NABC itself. Passport, bank and consulate offices often keep the original.
If any office stonewalls your NABC or your late-registration request, a right to information request often unlocks it. The RTI Playbook walks you through drafting one that gets a reply.
When an authority will accept nothing but a birth certificate, you cannot stop at an NABC. You register the birth late, called delayed registration, under Section 13 of the Registration of Births and Deaths Act, 1969. The rule works in three bands, by how much time has passed. The longer you wait, the higher the approval you need.
Most adults who were never registered fall in the after-one-year band, so they need a magistrate order, not just a counter visit. For example, someone born in a village in 1985 whose birth was never recorded will usually need this route to obtain a genuine certificate. State registration is being digitised, so check your state portal for the current online steps before you travel to an office. See the bare Act at India Code, Registration of Births and Deaths Act, 1969.
For a passport, the Ministry of External Affairs accepts any one of these as proof of date of birth. This replaced the older rule that forced everyone born on or after 26 January 1989 to submit a birth certificate. The document you use must actually show your date of birth.
| Document | Issued by |
|---|---|
| Birth certificate | Registrar of Births and Deaths or Municipal Corporation |
| Transfer, school leaving or matriculation certificate | School last attended or a recognised education board |
| PAN card | Income Tax Department |
| Aadhaar or e-Aadhaar | UIDAI |
| Service record extract or Pay Pension Order | Government employer, for serving or retired staff |
| Driving licence | State Transport Department |
| Voter ID, the EPIC card | Election Commission of India |
| Life insurance policy bond | Public life insurance corporation or company |
Source: Ministry of External Affairs, Announcement of new Passport Rules, 23 December 2016.
Two more points from the same rules help people with thin paperwork. Orphaned applicants who have none of the documents above can submit a declaration from the head of their orphanage or child care home, on official letterhead, confirming the date of birth. And the passport form annexes are now a self declaration on plain paper, with no swearing before a notary or magistrate needed for the form itself.
If you are new to the process, start with how to apply on Passport Seva. In a hurry, read applying for a Tatkal passport.
Yes. Since December 2016 you can prove your date of birth with any one of eight documents, including Aadhaar, PAN, a voter ID, a driving licence, a school or matriculation certificate, a life insurance policy bond, or a government service record. A birth certificate is only one option, not a must. This is set out in the Ministry of External Affairs announcement of new passport rules, dated 23 December 2016.
No. An NABC only states that the birth register has no entry for you. It does not certify your date of birth. That is why authorities who need proof of age ask for an NABC plus an affidavit or another dated document, or ask you to register the birth late and get a real certificate instead.
No special rule applies to you now. The old rule that only birth certificates counted for people born on or after 26 January 1989 was dropped in 2016. Everyone, whatever their birth year, can use any one of the eight accepted date-of-birth documents.
Then delayed registration needs an order from a District Magistrate, a Sub-Divisional Magistrate, or an authorised Executive Magistrate, along with a fee, under Section 13 of the Registration of Births and Deaths Act, 1969. For a passport you can usually skip this and use an existing dated ID instead.
The passport form declarations are now a self declaration on plain paper, with no notary or magistrate needed. For date-of-birth proof itself, the eight standard documents cover almost everyone, so a bare affidavit is rarely the way in. Use a dated ID wherever you can.