Affidavit for Change of Name After Marriage

Marriage is a huge milestone in anyone’s life, and we are right to think of it as life changing, given the number of things that change after marriage. The first change they will think is Change of the name after marriage or name change after marriage. This change is in most cases more for the woman, rather than the man. The trend of a woman taking on her husband’s name or surname is largely universal, although this has dropped as more women are opting to keep their name. There is no law which dictates that a woman should change her name. Different communities deal with this name change differently.

Christian women tend to change their surnames to their husband’s surnames after getting married, although this is becoming increasingly uncommon. Islam does not command a bride to change her name after marriage. Although, recently western influence has led to this starting to happen in Islam as well. In Hinduism, it is very common for the woman to take on her husband’s surname. In some communities, the woman takes on her husband’s first name as her surname. So even in all the other religions like Buddhism, Sikhism, Jainism and Judaism, women can choose not to change their surnames officially.

The procedure for changing the name after marriage involves fairly simple steps, as the process as a whole will take a long period of time. The Indian Constitution does not allow a person to change their name more than once in their lifetime. Hence, it requires serious consideration during the process.

What is the procedure for changing the name after marriage?

The procedure for changing name involves three main steps. They are as follows –

Step 1 – Affidavit of Change of Name after marriage: In the Procedure of Name Change after marriage, the woman must first visit a Notary in the District Court of his or her city. She must then acquire an Affidavit for Name Change after marriage. The Affidavit for change of name should be on a stamp paper of Rs.10 or Rs. 20. The affidavit will require details like maiden name, new name, husband’s name, address, a copy of your marriage certificate and the reason for changing the name now that you are married. The name change affidavit after marriage must then be notarized. This is possibly the most arduous task in the procedure. If one is applying from abroad, the affidavit must get attested at the embassy.

The below steps is further hold strong, but not required for name change after marriage

Step 2 – Newspaper Publication: The second step in the Name Change Procedure is for the woman to get her Change of Name published in 2 Local Leading Newspapers. One ad should be in a local language daily and the other in an English daily. The Newspaper Publication must include certain details. They are as follows – The Previous Name, The Current Name, Husband’s Name & Date of Marriage, Current Address, Date of Affidavit and Name of Notary.

Step 3 – Publication of Change of Name in the Gazette of India: The last and final step is to get the woman’s Change of Name published in the Gazette of India. For This Procedure, the woman will need to send a few documents in an Envelope to the following address: Controller of Publication, Department of Publication, Civil Lines, Delhi-54. The Central Gazette office is situated at Civil Lines, New Delhi. Residents of the capital may choose to be physically present and hand in the required documents or they may choose to send it via speed post, like the rest of the nation.This Publication in Gazette of India can be used as a Supporting Document for Change of Name in almost all other Major Indian Documents like Indian Passport, Pan Card, Election Card (Voter ID Card), Bank Account and Ration Card.

All Done? – If one gets through the change of name process successfully, the next step is to notify one’s bank, place of employment and other important institutions about the change in name. The woman may also want to replace her father’s name with her husband’s name.

Important Details and Precautions

  • It will take at least 2 months for the notification to be published by the Gazette authorities. Manual processing is one of the factors for the long duration coupled with a high backlog from all parts of the country. It is important to remember that the Gazette department is not fully computerized.
  • The applicant will not get any written acknowledgment from the department of publication. She will also not receive any communication from Gazette authorities on publication. It is the responsibility of the applicant to go through the electronic copies of the gazette published on nic.in
  • The applicant will not receive a hard copy of the Central Gazette that is published. Soft copies of the gazette edition shall be downloaded and printed by the applicant before submitting before any authority. The e-gazette website gets updated and features a new edition every Saturday.
  • The applicant must ensure that the affidavit or the annexure for the name change is not older than one year.
  • The applicant must self-attest all id proofs, photographs, affidavit copies and so on.
  • If the given precautions are not complied with, it leads to an unwanted delay in the process of publication wherein the applicant will be required to submit corrected versions of documents. It will be difficult to coordinate additional documents sent, given the manual methods used in the government department of publication.