Birth Certificate Name Change in Bihar

Who can apply for a birth certificate correction in Bihar

• The person named on the certificate, once they are 18.
• A parent or guardian, for a child under 18.
• A close relative or someone authorised in writing, where the applicant cannot attend. Ask the office what authorisation it accepts before sending anyone.

The registrar checks that the applicant is connected to the record, so carry ID that shows the relationship as well as the documents listed below.

Why people correct a name on a Bihar birth certificate

• A spelling mistake made when the birth was registered, often found years later by a passport office or an employer.
• No name on the certificate, because the birth was registered before the child was named.
• A short form or pet name entered instead of the full legal name, or an initial that was never expanded.
• Marriage or divorce. A surname taken or dropped later is a legal name change, not a correction; see returning to a maiden name after divorce.
• Adoption, religious conversion or gender transition, each of which has its own route.
• A mismatch with Aadhaar, school or board records, where one document has to be brought into line with the rest.
• The date of birth is wrong too, which is a separate application; see correcting a date of birth.

The reason decides the route. A mistake in what was recorded is a correction. A move to a different name is a legal name change, and that needs the Gazette.

Where your birth record is held in Bihar

Births are registered only at the place where they happened, by the registrar for that area. Your certificate names the registering office, and that is where any birth certificate name change in Bihar has to go.

• Civil Registration System (CRS), dc.crsorgi.gov.in, holds Bihar’s birth records for search and download. District websites such as Patna’s point to it for birth certificates.
• RTPS, serviceonline.bihar.gov.in, is Bihar’s service portal. Under Planning & Development it lists Issuance of Birth Certificate (From RTPS Counter), Issuance of Death Certificate (From RTPS Counter), and Online Application for Birth/Death Certificate (From CRS). It is a counter for getting a certificate, not the register itself, and it does not decide corrections.
• The registering office for older records that are not online.

How to correct a name on a Bihar birth certificate

Apply to the registrar that recorded the birth, with an affidavit and proof of the correct name.

1. Confirm the registering office from the certificate: the Gram Panchayat for a rural birth, or the urban local body for a town or city.
2. Prepare a notarised affidavit stating the entry as recorded, the correct entry and the reason for the mistake.
3. Collect proof of the correct name, such as a school record or the hospital’s record of the birth, with both parents’ Aadhaar.
4. Ask the office for its correction form, and submit it with the affidavit and documents.
5. The registrar checks the documents against the original entry and, once satisfied, issues the corrected certificate.

Ask the office whether it accepts the correction online; many still take it in person. If you no longer have the certificate, get a duplicate first.

Adding a name that was never entered in the register

If the certificate was issued without a name, the Registration of Births and Deaths Act lets the registrar add it free within 12 months of registration, and for a small fee up to 15 years. Ask the office about its current fee.

Correcting from outside Bihar

Many people from Bihar live and work in other states… and that distance is exactly why so many of these files end up delayed for months, not weeks. The affidavit can be sworn where you live, but the application still goes to the registering office in Bihar. A family member can usually deal with that office on your behalf with written authorisation; ask the office what it accepts before sending anyone.

Applying online through RTPS or in person

Bihar birth records are held on the Civil Registration System, where you can search for and download the certificate. RTPS, at serviceonline.bihar.gov.in, runs the counter service and an online application that feeds the same CRS record, so it is worth checking there as well as on CRS.

The correction itself is filed with the registrar that recorded the birth: the Gram Panchayat in a village, or the Nagar Nigam, Nagar Parishad or Nagar Panchayat in a town. In the capital, Patna Municipal Corporation runs birth and death registration and publishes its own birth certificate form. Ask that office whether it takes the application online or over the counter.

Documents required for a Bihar correction

• The existing birth certificate
• A notarised affidavit stating the correction and the reason
• Aadhaar showing the correct name
• A school certificate or the hospital’s record of the birth, where available
• For a legal name change: the original newspaper notice and the Gazette notification

Changing to a completely different name in Bihar

A legal name change runs in a fixed order: affidavit, newspaper notice, Gazette notification, then back to the registrar.

Step 1: the affidavit

The affidavit gives the old name exactly as it appears on the certificate, the new name, the date and place of birth, the parents’ names and the reason for the change, attested by a Notary Public on stamp paper. Write every detail exactly as it appears on Aadhaar.

Step 2: the newspaper notice in Hindi and English

Publish the change of name in a leading daily newspaper circulating in your area, giving the old name, the new name and your address. The Gazette office needs the original printed page, not a scan, so keep it safe. Many applicants publish in two papers, one English and one Hindi, because some departments ask for both.

Step 3: the Gazette notification

Bihar publishes its Gazette online, but only to read: there is no online application. The Bihar Secretariat Printing Press, which works under the Finance Department and has printed the state Gazette since 1912, runs egazette.bihar.gov.in, where Gazette Details and Notification Details can be viewed and searched. Use it to check or retrieve a notification, not to file one.

Because of that, most Bihar applicants use the Gazette of India, published by the Department of Publication in Delhi, which the passport office, banks and departments across the country accept. Use the state Gazette only where a Bihar department has asked for it by name.

The Department of Publication’s guidelines ask for:

• A signed undertaking giving your old and new name, your father’s or husband’s name and your address
• The original newspaper notice
• The change-of-name matter in the prescribed format, typed, in duplicate, signed in your old name with two witnesses
• A CD with the same matter in MS Word, without the witness portion
• A signed certificate that the printed copy and the CD copy match
• Two self-attested passport photographs and a self-attested photo ID
• The publication fee, paid through the Bharatkosh portal

The fee is ₹1,100 for an adult and ₹1,700 for a minor. Send the application by post, or hand it in, to the Controller of Publications, Department of Publication, Civil Lines, Delhi 110054. The office does not accept applications through agents or advocates, so the applicant signs and submits it. Documents should be less than a year old, and nothing sent is returned.

No printed copy is posted to you. Publication usually takes 30 to 45 days; after that, download your notice from egazette.gov.in by searching the weekly Gazette, Part IV, for the week it appeared.

Step 4: back to the registering office

Take the Gazette notification, the affidavit, the original newspaper notice and the existing certificate to the registering office. The registrar decides whether the entry can be updated. Where it cannot, keep the Gazette notification with your birth certificate as proof that both names belong to the same person.

What a name change costs in Bihar

Government and publication costs are modest, and a correction that does not need the Gazette skips the newspaper notice too.

Item	Typical cost
Affidavit (stamp paper and notary)	₹200 – ₹500
Newspaper notice	₹300 – ₹1,000 or more, depending on the paper
Gazette of India notification	₹1,100 for an adult, ₹1,700 for a minor
Registrar correction fee	Set by the office, usually small

If you’d like us to prepare the file, we quote our fee in writing after reviewing your documents, so you know the full cost before anything is filed. Ask your registering office for its own fee before filing, since that figure varies more than the Gazette costs. A Gazette application is signed and sent by you, as the Gazette office requires.

How long a Bihar correction takes

Route	Typical time
Correction at the registering office	A few weeks, depending on the office and how complete the file is
Legal name change	Around 2 to 4 months; the Gazette step alone is usually 30 to 45 days

Special cases: children, marriage and applicants abroad

• Marriage. Marriage does not change a birth certificate. A surname taken on marriage is a legal name change, not a correction; the passport office accepts a marriage certificate, but most other departments want the Gazette notification. See our guide to name change after marriage.
• Children. A parent or guardian signs the affidavit and applies for the child.
• Applicants living abroad. The name-change deed can be attested by the Indian Embassy or High Commission and a Gazette of India application sent by post. A family member can usually deal with the registering office in Bihar on your behalf with written authorisation; ask the office what it accepts.
• Gender transition. The law on changing name and gender on official records was amended in 2026. Our guide to birth certificate name change for gender transition explains the current routes.
• Religious conversion. A new name taken on conversion follows the legal name change route; see name change after religious conversion.
• A parent’s name is wrong rather than the child’s: see correcting a mother’s or father’s name.

If your Bihar application is stuck

Ask the registrar in writing for the status and keep a copy. If there is still no decision, take it to the District Registrar of Births and Deaths for your district. A birth registered more than a year after it happened is a separate matter: it needs a Magistrate’s order before it can be entered.

Official links for Bihar

Every link here was checked on 22 September 2026. Official Indian government sites end in .gov.in or .nic.in.

What you need	Where to go
Apply or collect at an RTPS counter	serviceonline.bihar.gov.in
Births registered in Patna	Patna Municipal Corporation
Search the Bihar Gazette	egazette.bihar.gov.in
Download or search the birth record	Civil Registration System
Gazette of India notification	egazette.gov.in, Part IV
Update Aadhaar	myaadhaar.uidai.gov.in
Update PAN	Protean or UTIITSL
Update the passport	passportindia.gov.in
Update the voter ID	voters.eci.gov.in

After the certificate is corrected: what to update next

Other records do not update themselves. Update Aadhaar first, then use it with the corrected certificate or the Gazette notification for everything else.

Aadhaar goes first, particularly if you work outside Bihar, since it’s the record your employer, bank and landlord elsewhere are most likely to check. Correct it once and you avoid explaining the same mismatch in a state that has never seen your birth certificate.

Order	Record	Where to update it
1	Aadhaar	myaadhaar.uidai.gov.in or an Aadhaar Seva Kendra
2	PAN	Protean (formerly NSDL) or UTIITSL
3	Passport	passportindia.gov.in
4	School and board certificates	Your school and the board
5	Voter ID	voters.eci.gov.in
6	Bank accounts	Your branch

Common mistakes that delay Bihar applications

• Assuming a record does not exist because one portal returned no result.
• Going to the office nearest your home instead of the one that registered the birth.
• An affidavit that does not match Aadhaar letter for letter.
• Keeping only a scan of the newspaper notice when the original printed page is needed.

Registered somewhere else? See all our state service pages. Nearby states: Birth Certificate Name Change in West Bengal, Birth Certificate Name Change in Uttar Pradesh, Birth Certificate Name Change in Delhi.

If your Bihar application is rejected

A rejection at a Bihar registering office is more often about authorisation than about the name itself. When someone else submits your application because you work outside the state, offices frequently want a specific written authorisation, not just a phone call or your affidavit alone. If a family member’s submission gets turned back, ask exactly what form the office wants — some insist on a notarised authorisation letter, some want a copy of your ID attached to it, and there is no single format that works at every Panchayat or Nagar Nigam. The other frequent rejection has nothing to do with documents at all: it’s an office searching RTPS for a birth record that only ever existed on CRS, then concluding the record doesn’t exist. Confirm your certificate shows up on the Civil Registration System specifically before assuming anything has been lost.

Example scenario

An illustration of how the rules above work in practice, not a client record.

A man working in Bengaluru discovered a spelling error on his certificate, registered years earlier at a Gram Panchayat outside Muzaffarpur, only when a passport application flagged it. He searched RTPS first, since a cousin had once used it for a residence certificate, and found nothing, so for several weeks he assumed the record was lost. It turned up on the Civil Registration System instead. He swore his affidavit in Bengaluru and sent it, along with a signed authorisation letter, to his brother, who filed the application at the Panchayat in person. That first attempt bounced back because the authorisation letter wasn’t notarised; a signature alone wasn’t enough for the office. He resent a notarised version, and the correction cleared in about a month after that. The delay came from searching the wrong portal and from an incomplete authorisation, not from the correction itself.

Birth certificate name change in Bihar: FAQs

Sources for this Bihar guide

• Registration of Births and Deaths Act, 1969: section 14 (name entered later) and section 15 (correction of entries); section 13 (delayed registration)
• ServicePlus Bihar (RTPS), Government of Bihar: Issuance of Birth Certificate (From RTPS Counter) and Online Application for Birth/Death Certificate (From CRS); serviceonline.bihar.gov.in
• Bihar Secretariat Printing Press, Finance Department, Government of Bihar: e-Gazette; egazette.bihar.gov.in
• Patna Municipal Corporation: birth and death registration; pmc.bihar.gov.in
• Civil Registration System, Office of the Registrar General of India; dc.crsorgi.gov.in
• Patna District administration: birth and death certificate service; patna.nic.in
• Department of Publication, Controller of Publications: Guidelines for Change of Name for Adult, Gazette of India Part IV; egazette.gov.in

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