Gazette notification for a name change
Why the chain ends here, which gazette to use, what separates the deed changing name from the affidavit, and how you retrieve and use the notification for the rest of your life.
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Central gazette or State gazette?
Both are publications of record. The question is only which one the institutions you actually have to deal with will accept — and for most people the answer is the same.
Which records do you need to change?
- Aadhaar, PAN or a passport — any of them
The central gazette. Do not use a State gazette for this.
All three are central authorities. A central gazette notification is accepted by them and by every State institution as well, so it removes the argument entirely. A State gazette risks having to do the whole application a second time.
- Only State records — a State service file, a State university, a State licence
Are you certain you will never need Aadhaar, PAN or a passport changed?
- Certain
A State gazette may be sufficient, and is sometimes quicker.
Published by the State government press. Ask the institution that is asking for proof which gazette it accepts, in writing, before you apply.
- Not certain
Take the central gazette. The cost of choosing wrongly is doing both.
A central notification is accepted everywhere the State one is, and in places it is not. For an irreversible administrative step, the safer route is the right one.
- Certain
- I do not know yet what I will need
Central gazette.
Almost everyone eventually changes Aadhaar or PAN, and the notification lasts a lifetime. This is not a decision worth optimising.
Whichever you choose, the earlier two steps of the chain are the same: the affidavit, then the newspaper publication, then this.
Most of the documents on this page are issued by a State government, not by the Union. The Act behind a document is usually central — the Registration of Births and Deaths Act, 1969, for instance — but the forms, the fees, the processing times, the portal and the office you actually go to are fixed by each State under its own rules. That means there is no single national fee or timeline for a domicile certificate, an income certificate or a legal heir certificate, and any page that quotes you one has invented it. We give you the statutory framework, which is the same everywhere, and the name of the office and portal for your State, which is where the current fee is published. Where a figure is set by a central authority — UIDAI, the Department of Publication, Passport Seva — it is stated as such and attributed.
A gazette notification for a name change is a small announcement published in the Gazette of India by the Department of Publication, Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs, recording that a named person formerly known by one name is now known by another. It is the third and final step of the name-change chain, after the affidavit and the newspaper publication, and it is the anchor document every downstream office recognises. Nothing compels you to obtain one — there is no Act governing a change of name in India — but in practice most significant institutions ask for it, so an exercise done without it is frequently an exercise done twice. The application is made with the affidavit, the newspaper pages, a deed changing name, identity documents, photographs and the prescribed fee. Once published, the notification is retrievable from the e-Gazette at egazette.gov.in, which is the copy institutions will accept.
Key takeaways
- It is the anchor document. Aadhaar, PAN, the passport office, banks, insurers, employers and universities all recognise a gazette notification; several of them will not act on an affidavit alone. That is why the chain ends here.
- It is published by the Department of Publication, Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs, and hosted on the e-Gazette portal by the National Informatics Centre — so the copy you download from egazette.gov.in is an official copy.
- Central or State gazette: a central gazette notification is recognised everywhere, and several States publish their own gazette which their own departments accept. Where a change is needed for a central purpose — a passport, PAN, Aadhaar — the central gazette is the safer route.
- The application encloses the two earlier steps, so it cannot be done first. The affidavit is what the newspapers publish, and the newspaper pages are what the gazette application encloses.
- Keep the whole set permanently — affidavit, both original newspaper pages, and the gazette notification. You will be asked for it years later, by an employer verifying a degree or a buyer’s advocate reading an old title deed.
Where the gazette sits in the chain
Two steps come before it and everything else comes after it. That is the whole of why this page matters: nothing downstream should start until this step is finished.
- Office practice
- No reliable period
- 1
The affidavit
Same day
Sworn before a notary or magistrate, on stamp paper of the value your State requires, declaring the old name, the new name, that both refer to the same person, and the reason.
→ The sworn statement the newspapers will publish
Affidavit format and generator → - 2
Newspaper publication
Days
Two papers, conventionally one English and one regional, circulating where you live. Keep the original full pages showing the masthead and the date — a clipping evidences nothing an office can rely on.
→ The pages the gazette application encloses
- 3
The gazette application
Published by the Department; not reproduced here
To the Department of Publication, with the deed changing name, the affidavit, both newspaper pages, identity and address proof, photographs and the prescribed fee. Read the submitted text character by character against your Aadhaar and PAN before it goes.
→ An acknowledgement, with the reference to follow up on
- 4
Publication and retrieval
No published period
The notification appears in the Gazette of India and becomes retrievable from the e-Gazette portal. Download several copies, and note the date and the part of the Gazette — retrieving it years later by those is easy, by name is not.
→ The anchor document every downstream office recognises
- 5
Everything downstream, in parallel
Each institution’s own
Aadhaar and PAN first because most institutions verify against them, then the passport, then banks and demat, then insurance, employer and provident fund, then property records and licences. Pull education records forward.
→ A consistent set of records in the new name
The full dependency chain →
- 1
The affidavit
Same day
Sworn before a notary or magistrate, on stamp paper of the value your State requires, declaring the old name, the new name, that both refer to the same person, and the reason.
→ The sworn statement the newspapers will publish
Affidavit format and generator → - 2
Newspaper publication
Days
Two papers, conventionally one English and one regional, circulating where you live. Keep the original full pages showing the masthead and the date — a clipping evidences nothing an office can rely on.
→ The pages the gazette application encloses
- 3
The gazette application
Published by the Department; not reproduced here
To the Department of Publication, with the deed changing name, the affidavit, both newspaper pages, identity and address proof, photographs and the prescribed fee. Read the submitted text character by character against your Aadhaar and PAN before it goes.
→ An acknowledgement, with the reference to follow up on
- 4
Publication and retrieval
No published period
The notification appears in the Gazette of India and becomes retrievable from the e-Gazette portal. Download several copies, and note the date and the part of the Gazette — retrieving it years later by those is easy, by name is not.
→ The anchor document every downstream office recognises
- 5
Everything downstream, in parallel
Each institution’s own
Aadhaar and PAN first because most institutions verify against them, then the passport, then banks and demat, then insurance, employer and provident fund, then property records and licences. Pull education records forward.
→ A consistent set of records in the new name
The full dependency chain →
Start the gazette application as early as you can. Every remaining step in the whole exercise is waiting on it, and it is the one step whose duration you cannot influence.
No number of days appears above. The Department of Publication publishes its own fee and processing time, and a figure copied onto a website is out of date the moment either changes.
Affidavit, newspaper, gazette: why only the last one settles it
All three are evidence of the same change, and institutions treat them very differently. The reason is in the last row.
| Point of comparison | AffidavitSworn before a notary | Newspaper announcementA paid insertion | Gazette notificationA government publication of record |
|---|---|---|---|
| What it is | A private document, sworn on stamp paper. | A paid advertisement in a commercial publication. | An entry in the official public journal of the Government of India. |
| Who created it | You, before a notary. | You, by paying the newspaper. | The Department of Publication. |
| Can the institution verify it independently? | Not really. It can inspect the paper and the notary’s seal. | It can obtain the archived page, with effort. | Yes — it can retrieve the notification from egazette.gov.in itself, at any time. |
| Will it still be retrievable in twenty years? | Only if you still have it. | From a newspaper archive, if one exists. | Yes. It is a permanent public record on a government portal. |
| Who accepts it on its own | Some institutions, for minor purposes. | Almost nobody, on its own. | Everyone. This is why the chain ends here. |
Affidavit
Sworn before a notary
- What it is
- A private document, sworn on stamp paper.
- Who created it
- You, before a notary.
- Can the institution verify it independently?
- Not really. It can inspect the paper and the notary’s seal.
- Will it still be retrievable in twenty years?
- Only if you still have it.
- Who accepts it on its own
- Some institutions, for minor purposes.
Newspaper announcement
A paid insertion
- What it is
- A paid advertisement in a commercial publication.
- Who created it
- You, by paying the newspaper.
- Can the institution verify it independently?
- It can obtain the archived page, with effort.
- Will it still be retrievable in twenty years?
- From a newspaper archive, if one exists.
- Who accepts it on its own
- Almost nobody, on its own.
Gazette notification
A government publication of record
- What it is
- An entry in the official public journal of the Government of India.
- Who created it
- The Department of Publication.
- Can the institution verify it independently?
- Yes — it can retrieve the notification from egazette.gov.in itself, at any time.
- Will it still be retrievable in twenty years?
- Yes. It is a permanent public record on a government portal.
- Who accepts it on its own
- Everyone. This is why the chain ends here.
A bank is not adjudicating anything when it asks for the gazette. It is looking for something it can put on its file that will still stand up in ten years, and only one of these three is independently verifiable by the institution itself.
The four documents, and what each of them is doing
People conflate the affidavit and the deed changing name, and they are different instruments doing different jobs. Understanding what each contributes explains why all of them are required.
- 1
The affidavit
A sworn statement of fact, made before a notary or magistrate: that you were formerly known by one name, are now known by another, and that both refer to the same person. It carries your father’s or husband’s name, your age and your full address, so it ties to your other documents.
Watch out — Every particular in it propagates into the newspaper announcement and the gazette notification. An error here becomes an error in all three.
- 2
The newspaper announcement
Puts the change into the public domain on a date that can be evidenced, in a form anyone could have seen. Two papers, conventionally one English and one regional, circulating where you live.
Watch out — Keep the original full pages, not clippings. Passport Seva and several other authorities ask for the publications alongside the gazette, and a clipping shows neither the masthead nor the date.
- 3
The deed changing name
A formal declaration in the form the Department of Publication prescribes: you renounce the former name, declare that you have assumed the new one, and undertake to use only the new name and to be known by it. Executed by you and attested by witnesses.
Watch out — This is not the affidavit. The affidavit swears to a fact; the deed declares the change. Both are required and they are separate documents.
- 4
The gazette notification
The published entry itself — an official, dated, publicly retrievable record that any institution can verify independently, at any point in the future. This is what makes the whole chain work.
Watch out — What is published is what you submitted. A corrigendum means a further application, a further fee and a further wait, so check the text before it goes.
Keep all four permanently, together with the e-Gazette date and part. The set is what settles the question when an employer verifies a degree in your old name, or a buyer’s advocate reads a title deed in it.
What the Gazette is, and why an entry in it settles the question
The Gazette of India is the official public journal of the Government of India. It is where the government publishes what it needs the public to be able to find and rely on — legislation, rules, notifications, appointments, and a range of other matters. It is published by the Department of Publication, which sits under the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs, and the electronic edition is hosted on the e-Gazette portal by the National Informatics Centre.
What makes a gazette notification useful for a name change has nothing to do with permission. Nobody at the Department of Publication approves your change of name, and there is no Act under which they could. What the publication does is put the fact on an official, dated, publicly retrievable record.
That is precisely what an institution asking for "proof of name change" wants. A bank is not adjudicating anything; it is looking for something it can put on its file that will still stand up in ten years. An affidavit is a private document sworn before a notary. A newspaper announcement is a paid insertion. A gazette notification is an entry in a government publication of record that anybody can retrieve from a government website. Of the three, only the last is verifiable by the institution itself, independently, at any point in the future.
Which is why the whole chain converges here, and why an exercise stopped at the affidavit stage tends to have to be repeated.
People search for "name change gazette" and for "gazette notification for name change" and expect them to be different things. They are not. There is one document, published in the Gazette of India, and both phrases describe it. There is no separate "gazette certificate" and no separate registration — what you receive is a copy of the page of the Gazette on which your notification appears.
Central gazette or State gazette: which one you need
Both exist. The Government of India publishes the Gazette of India, and States publish their own official gazettes. Both are publications of record, and the practical question is which one the institutions you are dealing with will accept.
A central gazette notification is recognised across the country and by central authorities, which matters because the most significant downstream updates are central: Aadhaar, PAN, and the passport. If you need any of those changed — and almost everybody does — the central gazette is the route that removes any argument.
A State gazette notification is published by the State’s own government press and is accepted by that State’s departments, its universities in many cases, and by institutions within the State. Where the change is needed only for State purposes — a State government service record, a State university, a State-issued licence — it may be sufficient, and it is sometimes quicker or cheaper.
The practical advice for most people is straightforward: if you are going to change your Aadhaar, PAN or passport, take the central gazette route. The cost of doing the wrong one is doing both.
| Gazette of India | A State gazette | |
|---|---|---|
| Published by | The Department of Publication, Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs. | The State government press or the equivalent State department. |
| Where the electronic copy lives | The e-Gazette portal at egazette.gov.in, hosted by the National Informatics Centre. | The State’s own gazette portal, where it maintains one. |
| Accepted by central authorities | Yes — this is the point of it. | Not reliably. Aadhaar, PAN and Passport Seva are central, and the central gazette removes the argument. |
| Accepted by State departments and institutions | Yes. | Yes, within that State. |
| When it is the right choice | Whenever Aadhaar, PAN or a passport is to be changed — which is almost every case. | Where the change is needed only for State purposes and the State route is quicker or cheaper. |
| The risk of choosing wrongly | None, beyond the fee. | Having to do the central one as well, which means the whole application again. |
Where a family is unsure, the central gazette is the safer choice. It is accepted everywhere the State gazette is accepted, and in places the State gazette is not.
What the application contains
The application is made to the Department of Publication, and it assembles the earlier steps of the chain along with a document specific to this stage: the deed changing name.
The deed changing name is a formal declaration, in the form the Department prescribes, in which you renounce your former name, declare that you have assumed the new one, and undertake to use only the new name and to be known by it. It is executed by you and attested by witnesses. It is a different document from the affidavit — the affidavit is a sworn statement of fact; the deed is a declaration of the change itself.
- 1The deed changing name, in the prescribed form, executed and attested.
- 2The affidavit sworn before a notary or magistrate, declaring the old name, the new name, that both refer to the same person, and the reason for the change.
- 3The original full pages of both newspapers carrying the announcement, showing the masthead and the date. Not clippings.
- 4Proof of identity in the existing name — Aadhaar, PAN, passport, voter identity card.
- 5Proof of address.
- 6Passport-size photographs, in the number and specification the Department requires.
- 7The prescribed fee, paid in the manner the Department accepts.
- 8A soft copy of the text of the notification, where the Department asks for one, so that what is published is what you wrote.
What is published is what you submitted. A misspelling in the new name, a wrong father’s name, a wrong address — each of them produces a published notification that does not quite match your other documents, which is the one thing this whole exercise exists to prevent. Read the submitted text character by character against your Aadhaar and PAN before you send it, and again on the acknowledgement.
After publication: retrieving and using the notification
Once the notification is published, it appears in the Gazette of India and is retrievable from the e-Gazette portal. That electronic copy is what most institutions will accept, and it is worth downloading several copies and saving the retrieval details.
Search the portal by the date of publication and the part of the Gazette in which the notification appeared; the acknowledgement you receive from the Department will tell you both. Save the file, note the reference, and print a few copies. Institutions differ on whether they want the printed copy, the file, or the reference — having all three costs nothing.
Then the downstream phase begins, and the order matters. Aadhaar and PAN first, because most other institutions verify against one or both of them. Then the passport. Then banks, demat accounts and insurance. Then employer and provident fund. Then property records, the driving licence, the voter roll and the ration card.
One category should be pulled forward out of that order: education records. Several boards and universities impose a time limit on a name change measured from the award of the qualification, and it is the only downstream update on the list that can expire. Ask about that rule at the start rather than at the end.
| Document | Keep it because |
|---|---|
| The affidavit, in original | Some institutions want it alongside the gazette, and it is the sworn statement that both names refer to the same person. |
| Both original newspaper pages | Passport Seva and several other authorities ask for the publications as well as the gazette. A clipping will not do. |
| The gazette notification, and the e-Gazette reference | The anchor document. Every institution that ever asks about your name will accept it, and the reference lets anyone verify it independently. |
| The deed changing name | Occasionally asked for, and part of the complete record of the change. |
| A note of the date and part of the Gazette | Retrieving a notification years later is far easier with the date and part than by searching a name. |
Keep the whole set together, permanently, with your important documents. An employer verifying a degree in your old name, or a buyer’s advocate reading a title deed in it, will ask for exactly this — and possibly decades from now.
How you prove the change afterwards, and to whom
The point of the whole chain is what happens when somebody, years later, notices that two of your documents carry different names. That happens more often than people expect, and it usually happens at an inconvenient moment: a background check, a property sale, an insurance claim, a pension application, an immigration process.
What settles it, in every one of those situations, is the same set of documents: the affidavit, the newspaper pages and the gazette notification, produced together. They establish that the person named on the older document and the person named on the newer one are the same person, on a dated and independently verifiable record.
Two practical points follow. First, a document in your old name is not invalid and does not need to be replaced for it to remain effective — a title deed, a degree certificate, a life policy or a court decree in your old name is perfectly good. What it needs is the evidentiary link beside it. Second, the set is worth keeping in more than one place, and worth telling your family about, because the people who most often need to produce it are not always you.
An ordering of the four against one another, from how these matters present. It is not a measurement. All four are answered by the same set of documents, which is the argument for keeping the set permanently rather than discarding it once the updates are done.
Worked examples
Example 1: The full application, assembled in the right order
- The change
- A personal decision, not a marriage or a correction
- Downstream needs
- Aadhaar, PAN, passport, three banks, a degree certificate
- The question
- Central gazette or State gazette?
- 1.Because Aadhaar, PAN and the passport are all to be changed, and all three are central, the central gazette is the route. A State gazette would risk having to do this twice.
- 2.The affidavit is executed first, on stamp paper of the value the State requires, attested by a notary. It states the old name, the new name, that both refer to the same person, and the reason.
- 3.The announcement is published in two newspapers — one English, one regional — circulating where the person lives. The original full pages are kept, showing the masthead and the date.
- 4.The gazette application is then assembled: the deed changing name in the prescribed form, the affidavit, both newspaper pages, identity and address proof, photographs, and the fee.
- 5.The submitted text of the notification is read character by character against the Aadhaar and PAN before it goes.
- 6.On publication, the notification is retrieved from the e-Gazette, several copies are printed, and the date and part of the Gazette are noted for future retrieval.
One anchor document that every downstream office accepts, assembled in an order where no step had to be repeated.
Example 2: The published notification with a wrong father’s name
- The notification
- Published, with the new name spelt correctly
- The error
- The father’s name in the notification differs from the Aadhaar and PAN
- Discovered
- At the Aadhaar update counter
- 1.The Gazette publishes what was submitted. The error was in the application, and it is now on the public record in that form.
- 2.The consequence is exactly what the chain exists to prevent: a notification that does not quite match the documents it is supposed to link.
- 3.The remedy is a corrigendum — a further application to the Department of Publication to publish a correction — which means the fee and the wait again.
- 4.The fix, had it been applied, cost ten minutes: read the submitted text character by character against the Aadhaar and PAN before sending, and again on the acknowledgement.
- 5.Do the same check on the affidavit and on the newspaper announcement, because the same particulars appear in all three and an error usually propagates from the first.
A second application, a second fee and a second wait, for an error that was visible on the draft. Every particular in a name-change chain should be checked against Aadhaar and PAN before anything is submitted.
Example 3: The background check, eleven years later
- The change
- Completed properly in 2015, with the full chain
- Now
- A new employer’s background verification
- The issue
- The degree certificate carries the former name
- 1.The degree certificate is not invalid, and does not need to be. What is needed is the evidentiary link between the name on it and the name the person now uses.
- 2.The affidavit, the two newspaper pages and the gazette notification, produced together, establish that link on a dated and independently verifiable record.
- 3.The verification agency can retrieve the gazette notification itself from the e-Gazette, using the date and part noted at the time — which is why noting them matters.
- 4.The whole question is settled in one email with three attachments.
- 5.Had the set been discarded once the updates were done, the same question would have required reconstructing an eleven-year-old chain from a newspaper archive.
This is what the chain is for. Keep the set permanently, in more than one place, and tell your family where it is.
More questions about this page
Is a gazette notification compulsory for a name change?▼
What is the difference between a name change gazette and a gazette notification for name change?▼
Who publishes the Gazette of India?▼
Should I use the central gazette or my State gazette?▼
What documents does the gazette application need?▼
How much does a gazette notification cost, and how long does it take?▼
Can I do the gazette notification before the newspaper publication?▼
How do I get a copy of my gazette notification later?▼
The published notification has a mistake. What do I do?▼
Do I need to keep the affidavit and newspapers after the gazette is published?▼
Official sources checked
The statutes, rules and regulator pages the statements on this page were checked against.
- The official Gazette of India publication platform. Its footer records that it is designed, developed and hosted by the National Informatics Centre under the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology, with content provided, uploaded and approved by the Department of Publication, Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs. Requested and confirmed while this page was built. The fee and processing time are published by the Department itself and are deliberately not reproduced here.
- Alteration of demographic information — the statutory basis for the Aadhaar update that normally follows a gazette notification.
When the gazette application goes wrong
Most of these are enclosure problems, and all of them cost a full cycle of the application. The last two are the expensive ones.
| What the refusal says | What it actually means | The cheapest fix |
|---|---|---|
| The application is returned for want of the newspaper pages. | Clippings were sent instead of the full pages, or only one newspaper was used where two were required. | Ask each newspaper for a copy of the full page for that date, or an attested copy. Where only one paper was used, publish in a second and wait for that page. |
| The deed changing name is not in the prescribed form. | The affidavit was submitted in place of the deed. They are different instruments — the affidavit swears to a fact, the deed declares the change. | Execute the deed in the form the Department prescribes, attested by witnesses, and submit it alongside the affidavit rather than instead of it. |
| The particulars do not match the identity documents. | The father’s name, the address or the spelling of the new name differs between the affidavit, the newspapers and the identity proof. | Make every document identical, character for character, before submitting. The error almost always originates in the affidavit and propagates from there.If that fails — Where it is discovered after publication, the remedy is a corrigendum — a further application, a further fee and a further wait. |
| The published notification carries an error. | The Gazette publishes what was submitted, and the error is now on the public record. | Apply for a corrigendum. There is no other route, and there is no way to withdraw a published notification.If that fails — Prevent it: read the submitted text character by character against your Aadhaar and PAN before it goes, and again on the acknowledgement. |
| A downstream office will not accept the State gazette. | A State gazette notification was obtained and a central authority — Aadhaar, PAN or Passport Seva — has asked for a central one. | There is no partial remedy. The central gazette application has to be made, which means the affidavit and the newspaper publications again if they are stale.If that fails — This is the reason the decision tree at the top of this page exists. Where any central record is to be changed, take the central gazette. |
| The notification cannot be found on the e-Gazette years later. | Searching by name across a large archive is unreliable. Searching by date and part is not. | Note the date of publication and the part of the Gazette from the acknowledgement, and keep them with the documents. Download several copies at the time. |
The application is returned for want of the newspaper pages.
What it meansClippings were sent instead of the full pages, or only one newspaper was used where two were required.
The cheapest fixAsk each newspaper for a copy of the full page for that date, or an attested copy. Where only one paper was used, publish in a second and wait for that page.
The deed changing name is not in the prescribed form.
What it meansThe affidavit was submitted in place of the deed. They are different instruments — the affidavit swears to a fact, the deed declares the change.
The cheapest fixExecute the deed in the form the Department prescribes, attested by witnesses, and submit it alongside the affidavit rather than instead of it.
The particulars do not match the identity documents.
What it meansThe father’s name, the address or the spelling of the new name differs between the affidavit, the newspapers and the identity proof.
The cheapest fixMake every document identical, character for character, before submitting. The error almost always originates in the affidavit and propagates from there.
If that fails — Where it is discovered after publication, the remedy is a corrigendum — a further application, a further fee and a further wait.
The published notification carries an error.
What it meansThe Gazette publishes what was submitted, and the error is now on the public record.
The cheapest fixApply for a corrigendum. There is no other route, and there is no way to withdraw a published notification.
If that fails — Prevent it: read the submitted text character by character against your Aadhaar and PAN before it goes, and again on the acknowledgement.
A downstream office will not accept the State gazette.
What it meansA State gazette notification was obtained and a central authority — Aadhaar, PAN or Passport Seva — has asked for a central one.
The cheapest fixThere is no partial remedy. The central gazette application has to be made, which means the affidavit and the newspaper publications again if they are stale.
If that fails — This is the reason the decision tree at the top of this page exists. Where any central record is to be changed, take the central gazette.
The notification cannot be found on the e-Gazette years later.
What it meansSearching by name across a large archive is unreliable. Searching by date and part is not.
The cheapest fixNote the date of publication and the part of the Gazette from the acknowledgement, and keep them with the documents. Download several copies at the time.
While the notification is pending, do these
- 1Make the list of every record that will need updating — including dormant bank accounts, old policies, and every education record.
- 2Ask each university, board or professional body about its own name-change procedure and whether it imposes a time limit from the award. This is the only downstream update that can expire.
- 3Do not update anything yet. An office that changes its record before the gazette exists has verified you against documents you are about to change.
- 4Check that your Aadhaar and PAN currently carry identical names. If they do not, that is a separate problem and it is better resolved before the new name is applied to both.
- 5Keep the affidavit and the original newspaper pages safe. Several downstream authorities want them alongside the gazette.
Every failure on this list is an enclosure or a proofreading failure, and each costs a full cycle. Ten minutes of checking before submission is the highest-return work in this whole exercise.
Where to go, and what we did not publish
The e-Gazette portal is the starting point for both applying and, afterwards, for retrieving your published notification. It is where the Department of Publication publishes its own current fee and processing time — which is why neither appears anywhere on this page. A fee copied onto a website is out of date the moment the Department changes it, and a stale figure is worse than none because you budget for it and then argue about it at a counter.
e-Gazette, Department of Publication ↗(opens in a new tab)
The address was requested and answered while this page was built. The portal’s own footer records that it is designed, developed and hosted by the National Informatics Centre under the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology, with content provided, uploaded and approved by the Department of Publication, Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs.
Related statuteAadhaar Act, 2016 — s. 31(opens in a new tab)Registration of Births and Deaths Act, 1969 — s. 15(opens in a new tab)
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Publishing the change in the Gazette
What to do next
- 1
Make sure the two earlier steps are complete first
The gazette application encloses the newspaper pages, and the newspapers publish the affidavit. Each step is the input to the next.
Affidavit format and free generator → - 2
Plan the downstream updates before the notification arrives
Making the list while you wait means the updates start the day the gazette is published rather than a fortnight later.
The full dependency chain → - 3
Update Aadhaar first, and understand what UIDAI accepts
Most other institutions verify against Aadhaar, and UIDAI limits how many times a name may be updated.
Aadhaar name update against correction → - 4
If the change is on marriage, you may not need any of this
The marriage certificate is itself an anchor document, and many institutions accept it without a gazette.
Name change after marriage →