Birth Certificate Name Change in Maharashtra

Who can apply for a birth certificate correction in Maharashtra

• 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 Maharashtra 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.

Mumbai or the rest of Maharashtra: which office holds your record

The office that registered the birth is the only one that can correct it, and BMC issues certificates only for births that happened in Mumbai. Start any birth certificate name change in the state by finding that office on the certificate.

	Mumbai (BMC)	Rest of Maharashtra
Registering office	The BMC ward office where the birth was registered	Municipal corporation, municipal council or Gram Panchayat
Online	MyBMC portal, portal.mcgm.gov.in	Aaple Sarkar, aaplesarkar.mahaonline.gov.in
In person	The ward office’s Civic Facility Centre, 8 am to 8 pm on working days	The issuing office

What BMC will and will not correct in Mumbai

BMC corrects spelling mistakes, not names.

• A spelling mistake can be corrected as long as the pronunciation does not change, such as i to ee.
• BMC does not change a child’s name once it has been entered, citing section 14 of the Registration of Births and Deaths Act.
• A name can be added to a certificate issued without one up to 15 years after the birth.
• An address can be corrected on at least two valid address proofs dated before the birth.

So if you need a different name, a birth certificate correction is the wrong route in Mumbai — here’s the thing, a lot of applicants only discover this after BMC has already turned them away once. The new name is recorded through a Gazette notification, and you keep that notification with the unchanged certificate as proof that both names belong to the same person. Other local bodies may take the same view, so ask yours before you apply.

How to correct a spelling mistake on a Maharashtra certificate

Apply to the office that registered the birth, with proof of the correct spelling.

In Mumbai, apply to the ward office that registered the birth, at its Civic Facility Centre, and check MyBMC’s birth certificate services to see whether your request can be made online. Elsewhere in Maharashtra, apply through Aaple Sarkar’s birth certificate service or at the issuing office.

• The existing birth certificate
• A notarised affidavit stating the error and the correct spelling
• Government ID such as Aadhaar, PAN or a voter card
• A document already showing the correct spelling, such as a school certificate or the hospital’s record of the birth
• Both parents’ ID proof, if a parent’s name is being corrected

If you no longer have the certificate, get a duplicate first.

If the birth was never registered in Mumbai

BMC’s published charges for late registration under section 13 of the Act are:

Time since the birth	Charge
Up to 21 days	Free
22 to 30 days	₹11
31 days to 1 year	₹23, with an affidavit
After 1 year	₹55, with a court order

Changing to a completely different name in Maharashtra

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

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, sworn on non-judicial stamp paper and attested by a Notary Public. Aaple Sarkar asks for the same details when you file the Gazette application, so keep the spellings identical across both, and match Aadhaar letter for letter.

Step 2: the newspaper notice in Marathi and English

Publish the change of name in a leading daily circulating in your district, giving the old name, the new name and your address. Keep the original printed page, because the Gazette office needs the paper itself rather than a scan. Most applicants in Maharashtra publish twice, once in a Marathi daily and once in an English one, since some departments ask to see both.

Step 3: the Maharashtra Gazette or the Gazette of India

Maharashtra takes state Gazette name changes online, through Aaple Sarkar. The Directorate of Government Printing, Stationery and Publications, which sits under the Industry, Energy and Labour Department, lists change of name, change of religion and date of birth corrections among its citizen services, published as Part Two (Miscellaneous) notifications. Applications are filed through Aaple Sarkar, published notifications are searchable on the Maharashtra e-Gazette, and the directorate’s helpline is 022-61316404.

That route carries more weight here than elsewhere, because BMC will not replace a name on the certificate itself: the Gazette notification becomes the document that ties the two names together. The Gazette of India, published by the Department of Publication in Delhi, is the one to use for nationwide acceptance, from outside the state, or for use abroad.

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.

Using the Gazette with your birth certificate

Because BMC does not change a registered name, the Gazette notification is what connects your birth certificate to your new name… the two documents work as a pair, not as replacements for each other. Keep the notification, the affidavit and the original newspaper notice together, and show them with the birth certificate whenever a department asks for proof of the change.

Applying online through Aaple Sarkar or in person

Maharashtra services run through Aaple Sarkar, and in Mumbai the BMC portal covers birth and death records for the ward offices.

A correction is still decided at the ward office or local body that registered the birth, and in Mumbai the Civic Facility Centre at that ward is where the file is handed in.

What a name change costs in Maharashtra

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
Correction fee	Set by the local body, usually small
BMC certificate copy, births from 2016	₹6 per copy

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. It isn’t the Gazette fee that catches people out here — it’s not realising BMC won’t touch the certificate itself. A Gazette application is signed and sent by you, as the Gazette office requires.

How long a Maharashtra correction takes

Route	Typical time
Spelling correction	Depends on the office and on how complete the file is
Gazette of India notification	Usually 30 to 45 days after a complete application

If the date of birth is wrong too

A wrong date of birth is a separate correction with its own proof requirements, not part of a name change. See our guide to date of birth correction.

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. A name that was never entered can be added up to 15 years after the birth.
• 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 local body in Maharashtra 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.

Official links for Maharashtra

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 for a Gazette name change	Aaple Sarkar
Search published Maharashtra notifications	Maharashtra e-Gazette
State services	Aaple Sarkar
Mumbai births	portal.mcgm.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 first, since it’s the one document banks, the passport office and most Maharashtra departments now check against by default. Get it updated once, and you stop re-proving the same name pairing at every counter you visit after.

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 Maharashtra applications

• Applying to BMC for a birth that happened outside Mumbai.
• Expecting BMC to replace a registered name rather than correct its spelling.
• Changing how a name sounds and calling it a spelling correction.
• 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 Gujarat, Birth Certificate Name Change in Karnataka, Birth Certificate Name Change in Telangana.

If your Maharashtra application is rejected

The most common rejection at a BMC ward office isn’t about missing paperwork — it’s a request filed as a spelling correction that the office decides actually changes how the name sounds. Once that happens, the file doesn’t get fixed and resubmitted the way a normal correction would; it gets refused outright, because BMC treats that as a new name, not a typo. If your correction is turned down on those grounds, don’t keep resubmitting the same form with small tweaks. Accept that you’re on the Gazette route now, run the newspaper notice, and get the notification, since arguing pronunciation with a ward office rarely changes the outcome. Outside Mumbai, ask your local body directly whether it follows the same pronunciation test before you apply, since some are stricter about it than others.

Example scenario

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

A woman in Mumbai wanted her certificate to read “Shailee” instead of “Sayali,” the name her grandmother had insisted on at birth and that she’d never gone by. She filed it at her ward office as a spelling correction, since to her it felt like a small fix. The clerk rejected it on the spot — the two names don’t sound alike, so this wasn’t a pronunciation-preserving correction under BMC’s own rule, whatever the family called it. She ran the newspaper notice, applied for the Gazette of India, and kept the notification alongside her unchanged birth certificate once it came through. Nothing on the certificate itself ever changed; the Gazette notification is what now proves “Sayali” and “Shailee” are the same person, and that’s the pairing she shows whenever a bank or office asks.

Birth certificate name change in Maharashtra: FAQs

Sources for this Maharashtra guide

• Registration of Births and Deaths Act, 1969: section 14 (name entered later) and section 15 (correction of entries); section 13 (delayed registration)
• Directorate of Government Printing, Stationery and Publications, Maharashtra: citizen services for change of name, religion and date of birth, filed through Aaple Sarkar; dgps.maharashtra.gov.in
• Municipal Corporation of Greater Mumbai, Public Health Department: FAQ on Birth and Death; portal.mcgm.gov.in
• Aaple Sarkar, Government of Maharashtra: birth certificate service; aaplesarkar.mahaonline.gov.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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