Under the Civil Registration System (CRS), it is legally mandatory to register birth and death events within how many days in India?

The correct answer is B) 21 days. Under the Registration of Births and Deaths Act, 1969, which is the legal base for the Civil Registration System, every birth and death must be reported to the local registrar within 21 days of occurrence. Registration within this window is free of charge. After it, late registration needs further procedure as laid down by the state rules.

Why the others fail:

• 15 days is not the statutory period. It gets mixed up with other administrative timelines.
• 26 days and 30 days have no basis in the 1969 Act.

Core concept: CRS is the continuous, compulsory recording of vital events by the local registrar, supervised by the Chief Registrar at state level and the Registrar General of India at the centre. Mains angle: the Registration of Births and Deaths (Amendment) Act, 2023 moved the system towards a digitised registry and made the birth certificate a single document for services such as school admission and employment. The 21-day window itself remains the core rule.

Trap: aspirants pick 30 days because many government deadlines are monthly, so they assume the same for vital events.