Draft law for Civil Registration Commission in the works

The government is scoping for a way to ease hassles involving the acquisition of birth certificate, NID and passport

The interim government has moved to establish an independent commission to mitigate complications involving the acquisition of birth certificate, NID and passport.

A draft ordinance, the Civil Registration (Commission), 2025, is in the works, with the Cabinet Division gathering the views of the Local Government Division, Security Service Department and Health Services Division, among others.

The initial inter-ministerial meeting to discuss the opinions ahead of “testing the draft law” was held on Monday.

A representative of the Election Commission Secretariat was also present at the additional secretary-level meeting.

“The Cabinet Division has taken a step towards further expanding the structural position of the NID. It is being discussed within the cabinet,” said EC Secretary Akhtar Ahmed.

Declining to reveal anything beyond that, he said: “I don’t know anything concrete about removing NID from the Election Commission Secretariat.”

The EC Secretariat sought the scrapping of a law enacted during the Awami League government, stipulating that NIDs would be issued under the Ministry of Home Affairs after the fall of Sheikh Hasina in August.

If the law is repealed, the NID issuance will remain in the hands of the Election Commission as it always was. After the proposal is approved, the government will have to issue an ordinance to scrap the previous law and reinstate the previous one.

On Jan 16, Chief Election Commissioner AMM Nasir Uddin said the advisory committee had greenlighted the Election Commission’s proposal to retain the NID service.

Meanwhile, the Electoral Reform Commission recommended the government to form an independent statutory agency called the National Identity Registration Agency.

On Jan 26, the CEC spoke against it.

“NID cards, voter registration, which they have suggested to handover to an independent directorate in the next phase… Will we have control if it’s given to another authority? It’s impossible,” he said.

Why independent institution

Stakeholders think the formulation of the National Identity Registration Act (Repeal) Ordinance, 2025 is “timely”, but all activities related to registration for national identity and NIDs should be operated through an independent and autonomous institution.

Easing of the harassment and unnecessary complications that entail the acquisition of birth certificate, NID and passport was also important.

Towards that end, the proposed ordinance can be revised through discussions with the Legislative and Parliamentary Affairs Division, home ministry, Local Government Division and EC Secretariat for presentation.

For that, a law - Civil Registration (Commission), 2025 - is being discussed to establish a constitutional and independent commission that will work towards organising the method and institutional structure of civil registration.

The EC Secretariat, however, said the government initiative was in a “very primary” stage.

The director general of EC’s NID wing attended the meeting on Monday.

EC Secretary Akhtar said: “A discussion about the draft was held yesterday. It’s still in discussion. The Cabinet Division has authority over it.”

Additional secretaries who attended the meeting provided opinions of a simple framework and nothing was conclusive yet, he added.