Most people are declared alive by their birth certificate and this status is presumed to hold until revoked by a death certificate. But can you undo a death certificate?
In 1975, 20-year-old Lal Bihari Mritak from India found that he had been wrongly declared dead. This wasn’t an administrative error; his uncle had bribed officials so that he could inherit a small plot of farmland. It took 19 years of campaigning for Bihari to reassert his living status.
In the UK, thankfully, the process is a little faster. Liverpool resident 65-year-old Ann Smith was incorrectly listed as dead by the Department of Work and Pensions in 2022, but the error was corrected within a week.
This article is an answer to the question (asked by Sam Ferrell, via email) 'You can be declared dead, but can you be declared alive?'
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