Gazette Name Correction vs Name Change in Jharkhand
Most people ask whether they need a gazette. That is the wrong question, and asking it is what costs them the fee. The Department of Publication does not run one gazette process, it runs twelve separate notice categories, each with its own guidelines and its own proforma, and two of them look alike to everybody except the office that reads them. One says a name has been wrongly written as. The other says the applicant shall henceforth be known as a new name. Only one of those sentences is true about you. This page puts the two side by side in the Department's own words, so you choose once and choose right.
A gazette notice is not one thing. The Department of Publication runs a separate guideline, a separate proforma and a separate set of papers for each kind of notice, and its own published list carries twelve of them, including Guidelines for Notification of Public Notice and Guidelines for change of Name - Adult / Major as two different categories. So the question is never whether you need a gazette. It is which category your case belongs to. The word that decides is in the first line of the proforma. The public notice proforma says the name has been wrongly written as, and the Department's own scope note for it covers correction of names, change of sex, cancellation of adoption of a major, and change of name of children and the father on re-marriage. The change of name proforma says the applicant shall henceforth be known as the new name, and it is signed in the old name. If your school certificate carries Rajeev where every other paper says Rajiv, and no name of yours ever changed, then a change of name notification describes something that never happened, and that is why counters reject it. If you chose a new name, a public notice describing a wrongly written name is equally wrong. Jharkhand has no gazette counter in any district, so either notice is filed with the Department of Publication at Civil Lines, Delhi 110054, and publishes in Part IV of the Gazette of India. The Department also publishes a document listing matters it does not publish in Part IV at all, which is worth reading before you assume a gazette can fix your problem. This page puts the two categories side by side, in the Department's own words, so you pick once and pick right.
The Department of Publication Has Twelve Notice Categories, Not One Gazette
Almost every page you will read about a gazette name change in Jharkhand talks about "the gazette process" as a single thing. It is not. The Department of Publication publishes a separate guidelines document for each category of notice it accepts, and each of those has its own proforma, its own list of papers and in some cases its own extra requirement. Its published guidelines list carries these titles:
| The Department's guideline title | What kind of case it is for |
|---|---|
| Guidelines for Notification of Public Notice | A name that has been wrongly written, and the related cases the Department lists under it |
| Guidelines for change of Name - Adult / Major | An adult choosing a different name from the one in his records |
| Guidelines for Change of Name - Minor | A child's name, published by the parent or guardian |
| Guidelines for Adopting Maiden Surname | Going back to a maiden surname |
| Guidelines for Adopting different Surname | Taking a surname that is not the one in the record |
| Guidelines for Change of Name and Gender | Name and gender together, with a separate medical document requirement |
| Guidelines for Change of Religion | A change of religion, which the Department says comes first where a name is changing from one religion's name to another's |
| Guidelines for Adoption of Child | Adoption notices |
| Guidelines for Public Notice of change of name of minor after divorce | A child's name after a divorce, a category of its own |
| Guidelines for notification of Lost, Destroyed and stolen notice | Not a name matter at all |
| Guidelines for Notification in Part III Section IV | A different Part of the Gazette |
| Guidelines for Transmission Line | Not a name matter at all |
Read that table once and the real problem becomes obvious. A person in Ranchi or Jamshedpur with a misprint on a JAC marksheet is not choosing between "gazette" and "no gazette". He is choosing between two of these categories, and an agent who only knows one of them will put his file in the wrong queue.
Why the Public Notice Category Is Wider Than People Think
The Department's own scope note under the public notice guidelines says it is for correction of names, change of sex, cancellation of adoption of a major, and change of name of children and of the father on re-marriage, among others. That single sentence covers four situations that people in Jharkhand come to us with every week, and all four sit in the public notice category and not in change of name:
A name wrongly written
The commonest case by far. A marksheet, a caste certificate or a birth entry carries a spelling that was never yours. Nothing is being changed, an error is being declared.
A child's name after re-marriage
Where the record of a child, or of the father shown on a child's record, has to be set right after a re-marriage. This is why the category matters to the father's name pages on this site.
Cancellation of adoption of a major
A narrow case, but it tells you how the Department thinks. This is a declaration of fact, not a chosen new name, so it belongs with public notice.
Change of sex
Listed here in the public notice guidelines, while name and gender together has a guideline of its own. Two different routes for cases that sound similar.
There is one more Jharkhand-specific point to record here. As reported in July 2025, the Finance Department stopped personal name change notifications from the Jharkhand Government Press with immediate effect and a high level inquiry was ordered, and reports say the press holds no copies of notifications published before 2014. So none of these twelve categories has a state counterpart you can use today. All of them run through Delhi. The full picture is on the Jharkhand Gazette compared with the Gazette of India page.
Name Correction vs Name Change: The One Proforma Line That Decides
You do not need to understand gazette law to get this right. You need to read the first line of each proforma and ask which sentence is true about you. Here are both openings, in the Department's own wording.
The Public Notice Proforma Opening, for a Correction
Notice four things in that one sentence. It begins with information, not with a request. It uses the words has been wrongly written, which is a statement about a mistake somebody else made in a record. It gives you a list of whose name the mistake can be about, which is how one notice can cover a father's name or a child's name and not only your own. And it asks for the wrong version, which means you have to reproduce the error exactly as the certificate carries it, letter for letter, including a missing letter or an extra one.
The Change of Name Proforma Opening, for a Chosen New Name
This sentence does the opposite. It admits the old name was correct and asks the public to treat a new name as yours from now on. Henceforth is a word about the future. There is no mistake anywhere in it.
Why Using the Wrong Sentence Gets a File Rejected
Put the two side by side and the rejection becomes predictable rather than mysterious.
| Your actual situation | Correct category | What the wrong choice claims about you |
|---|---|---|
| A marksheet spells your name wrongly and no name of yours ever changed | Public notice, wrongly written | A change of name notice swears you had a different name and then changed it. An office reading it asks why your Aadhaar was never in that old name, and your own notice becomes the contradiction |
| You decided to take a different name | Change of name, adult or major | A public notice claims a clerk made an error. The office asks which record carries the correct version, and there is none, because the name you want never existed anywhere |
| Your father's name is misprinted on your certificate | Public notice, the father's name limb | A change of name notice in your own name does not touch the father's name field at all, so the fee buys a notice that answers a question nobody asked |
| A child's record has to be set right after a re-marriage | Public notice, the Department lists this case by name | A minor change of name notice describes a chosen new name, which is not what a school or board is being asked to accept |
| You want both names to stand, because both are on live documents | Public notice with the alias form | A change of name notice replaces one with the other, and the document still carrying the older name becomes harder to explain, not easier |
This is the whole reason the page exists. The commonest paid mistake in Jharkhand is not choosing the wrong office. It is paying the full Government fee for a notice whose first sentence describes a different life than the one the applicant has lived. The public notice page covers the correction route in full, and the gazette name change page covers the change route.
Who Signs a Gazette Notice, and in Which Name
Here is a difference between the two categories that nobody publishes and that sends real files back. In the change of name category the Department asks for the proforma copies to be signed by the old name of the applicant, and for the certificate about the hard copy and soft copy to be signed in the old name too. That makes sense once you see it: at the moment of signing, the new name is not yet yours.
In the public notice category the applicant signs in his own name, because no name is changing. He is declaring that a record carries a mistake. Signing a correction file in the wrong version, the misprinted one, is a mistake we see on files prepared by agents who use one template for everything.
Two witnesses, both categories
The proforma is signed by the applicant and by two witnesses, with each witness's full name, address and mobile number, and a self-attested copy of each witness's identity and address proof in the file.
The proforma goes in duplicate
Two original typed copies. Not a photocopy of one signed copy. Both carry the signatures.
The soft copy leaves the witnesses out
For a public notice the CD carries the print matter without the witness portion, in MS Word, with the name typed where a signature would be. This single instruction accounts for a large share of returns.
How to Decide Between a Name Correction and a Name Change, Step by Step
Work through these in order. Do not skip to the fee, because the fee depends on the answer to step three.
Write down the exact correct name
Letter by letter, the version you want every record to carry at the end. Then write the version each wrong document actually carries, copying the error exactly. You now have two columns, and most people discover at this point that they have three or four versions, not two.
Ask which records already carry the correct version
If even one Government record carries the correct spelling, especially the Class 10 certificate or the birth certificate, you are in correction territory. The Department itself names the tenth certificate and the birth certificate as proof of the old name, which tells you how much weight those two carry.
Ask whether any name of yours ever changed
If no name changed and a clerk simply wrote it wrongly, the answer is the public notice category. If you chose a new name, it is the change of name category. If a marriage, divorce or adoption is involved, read the relevant page first, because those have their own categories.
Try the issuing office before you pay anything
A correction is cheaper and faster at the office that issued the wrong document, if its own register carries the right version. A gazette notice does not replace that step, it is what you use when the register carries the same error.
Confirm the matter is one the Department publishes
Check its list of matters not published in Part IV. A date of birth, for example, is never settled by a gazette, whichever category you use.
Pick the category, then the proforma
Not the other way round. Download the guidelines document for that one category and follow only it. Mixing instructions from two categories is how files come back.
Prepare the file once, completely
Every paper the category lists, in the order it lists them. A file short of one certificate is not held for that certificate, it is returned, and the fee is already spent.
Post it yourself and read the published notice
In your own name, by post or courier, from wherever you are in Jharkhand. When it publishes, read every letter of both names before you carry it to any office.
Papers Required for a Public Notice and for a Gazette Name Change
The two lists look similar at a glance and differ in ways that matter. This is the comparison no competitor page in Jharkhand carries.
| The paper | Public notice, wrongly written name | Change of name, adult or major |
|---|---|---|
| The proforma | In duplicate, typed, signed by the applicant in his own name and by two witnesses | Two original copies, typed fully, signed by the old name of the applicant, with witnesses |
| Undertaking | An undertaking duly signed by the applicant | An original undertaking in the prescribed format |
| Newspaper | The original paper, the matter published in one of the daily local leading newspapers, showing details of the case | One recent advertisement in a daily local newspaper, in original, in English or Hindi, under the Public Notice heading, carrying the old name, father's name, full address and new name |
| Soft copy | A CD with the print matter without the witness portion, in MS Word, the name typed in place of the signature | A CD with the prescribed proforma in MS Word |
| Soft copy certificate | A certificate signed by the applicant that the hard copy and soft copy are the same | The same certificate, signed in the old name |
| Photographs | Two self-attested passport size photographs | Two recent passport size photographs, self-attested and cross signed |
| Identity proof | Self-attested photocopy of identity proof | Self-attested photocopy of photo identity proof for the old name and address |
| Witness proof | Self-attested identity and address proof for each of the two witnesses | The same, for each of the two witnesses |
| The document that carries the error | An attested photocopy of the connected legal document, which in practice is the certificate carrying the wrong spelling | Not applicable, because nothing is wrong anywhere |
| Request letter | A request letter along with the requisite fee | A request letter to the Controller of Publication, with a telephone number and an email address |
Two rows in that table are the ones to read twice. The connected legal document row is the heart of a correction file: you are proving that a specific certificate carries a specific error, so the certificate itself has to be in the file, attested. And the newspaper row differs in wording between the categories, with the public notice guidelines asking for the matter to show details of the case rather than prescribing a fixed advertisement text.
Central Gazette Name Change Process From Jharkhand, Step by Step, Whichever Category You Chose
Once the category is settled, the file itself runs the same way for both. No district in Jharkhand has a gazette counter, so a person in Ranchi, Jamshedpur, Dhanbad, Bokaro, Hazaribagh or any other district sends the file to the Department of Publication, Civil Lines, Delhi 110054, and the notice publishes in Part IV of the Gazette of India. Since July 2025 the Jharkhand Government Press has stopped personal name change notifications, as reported, so there is no state alternative to weigh up.
Read this section before you spend anything. The file is prepared once, the fee is not refundable, and a returned file costs weeks.
The Eight Steps of a Central Gazette File Sent From Jharkhand
Fix the final spelling before anything else
Write the exact name you want at the end, letter by letter, and then use that spelling in every paper. The Gazette publishes what is written. One wrong letter means a corrigendum later, which is a second fee and a second wait.
Download the guidelines for your one category
Public notice or change of name, adult or minor, maiden surname or a different surname. Open only that document and follow only it. This is the step that decides whether the rest of the work is wasted.
Prepare the proforma in duplicate and the undertaking
Typed, not handwritten. Signed in your own name for a correction, in the old name for a change of name, with two witnesses giving their names, addresses and mobile numbers.
Publish in the newspaper and keep the original
The original printed paper goes into the file, not a cutting, a photocopy or a PDF from the paper's website. For a correction the published matter shows the details of the case.
Burn the soft copy exactly as asked
MS Word, and for a public notice without the witness portion, with the name typed where the signature goes. Then the certificate signed by you saying the hard copy and the soft copy are the same.
Pay only through BharatKosh
The Government fee goes through BharatKosh, the Non Tax Receipt Portal, and nowhere else since October 2018. Print the e-receipt. Nobody at the Department takes cash and no agent can pay it on another portal.
Post the complete set in your own name
Personally or by post or courier only. No agent, advocate, friend or relative with an authority letter. Photocopy the whole file first, because nothing sent in is ever returned.
Read the published notice, then download it
Check it the day it publishes. If it is right, download the e-Gazette copy of that Part IV issue and keep it permanently. If a letter is wrong, apply for a corrigendum at once, before offices start copying the error.
The Five Papers in the File, and What Is Checked in Each
| The paper | What is checked in it, clause by clause |
|---|---|
| 1. The proforma, in duplicate | That it is the proforma of the category you claimed; the wrong version quoted exactly as the certificate carries it, for a correction; the new name, for a change; the father's name; the full address with pin code; the applicant's signature in the right name; two witnesses complete with mobile numbers |
| 2. The undertaking | Signed by the applicant; the same names and address as the proforma, word for word; the declaration that the statement is true, with the applicant accepting responsibility if a legal issue arises later |
| 3. The original newspaper | The original paper, not a cutting; the paper's name and date of publication visible; for a correction the details of the case shown; the same spelling as the proforma in every place |
| 4. Photographs, identity proof and the connected document | Two self-attested passport photographs; identity and address proof matching the address on the proforma; the two witnesses' proofs; and for a correction the attested photocopy of the certificate that carries the error |
| 5. The CD, its certificate and the BharatKosh receipt | MS Word, formatted as the category requires; the certificate signed by the applicant that hard and soft copies are the same; the request letter with a telephone number and email; the e-receipt showing payment to the Department of Publication |
The posting and courier detail from Jharkhand is on the sending the file to Delhi page, the payment walkthrough is on the BharatKosh page, the wording line by line is on the proforma format page, and the fix for a published error is on the corrigendum page.
Public Notice Fee and Gazette Name Change Fee in Jharkhand
We will give you the figures we can stand behind and tell you plainly where the published guidelines are older than the amount you will actually pay.
| Item | What to expect |
|---|---|
| What the guidelines themselves print | Each category prints its own figure, all for the financial year 1 April 2016 to 31 March 2017, and each adds that it varies each financial year and from case to case. Public notice: Rs 1,400. Change of name, adult or major: Rs 1,100. Change of name and gender: Rs 1,400. And for an Indian living abroad the adult guidelines print Rs 3,500 |
| What applicants commonly pay now | Commonly Rs 1,100 for an adult's change of name and Rs 1,700 for a minor, and around Rs 1,350 for a public notice where the undertaking is involved. These figures are revised each financial year, so read the amount on BharatKosh on the day you pay rather than trusting any website, this one included |
| Extra charges | The Department publishes a separate document on details where additional charges are applicable. Extra names or additional matter can raise the amount, which is what it means by varying from case to case |
| How it is paid | BharatKosh, the Non Tax Receipt Portal, only, from 1 October 2018. Non-refundable, whether the notice publishes or the file comes back |
| Newspaper cost | Paid to the newspaper, not to the Department. It varies by paper and by the size of the matter, and a correction notice showing the details of the case runs longer than a plain change of name line |
| Affidavit and notary | Rs 100 non-judicial stamp paper is the safe default in Jharkhand, plus the notary's charge |
| Time to publish | Part IV publishes weekly. Allow several weeks from posting, and more if the file has to travel back and forth. The six-month window to make good a shortcoming is the outer limit before a fresh application is needed |
| Our charge | Quoted on your papers, before you pay anything, and confirmed in writing. We do not print a service price on any page of this site |
The full cost picture across every stage, including the document updates afterwards, is on the name change cost page, and the gazette stage on its own is on the time and fees page.
Myths About Name Correction and Name Change in the Gazette
"A gazette is a gazette, the wording does not matter"
It is the only thing that matters. The Department runs twelve separate guideline categories with different proformas, and the first line of the one you use is what an office reads. Wording is not formality here, it is the claim you are making about your own life.
"A correction needs a gazette"
Usually it does not. If the issuing office's own register carries the correct version, that office corrects the document. The gazette route is for when the register carries the same error, which is the situation the JAC register page deals with.
"Two newspapers are compulsory"
The guidelines we have read ask for the original paper carrying the advertisement. Two papers is a practice many offices expect, not a rule the guidelines state. We publish a second only where the receiving office asks for it.
"An agent can submit the file for me"
The Department states that only personal submission or post and courier are entertained, naming agents and advocates as not permissible. Anyone promising counter submission in Delhi is promising something already ruled out.
"I can get my papers back if it is rejected"
You cannot. The Department states documents submitted are not returned in any circumstances. Photocopy everything before it leaves Jharkhand.
"A gazette can fix my date of birth too"
No. A date is settled by the registrar, the board or a court, never by a notice about a name. The date of birth page sets out the real routes.
"There is a gazette office in Jharkhand"
There is not, and a widely copied listing prints a Jharkhand address with the Delhi pin code, which is how you can spot it. The gazette office page covers this.
"One notice fixes every document automatically"
A notice is evidence. Each office still has to be approached with it, in the right order. What it does is remove the argument about which spelling is correct.
"Both my names can never stand together"
They can, through the alias form of a public notice, where two live documents genuinely carry two versions. That is often a better answer than forcing one of them out of existence.
Key Terms in a Gazette Correction or Name Change
| Term | What it means in practice |
|---|---|
| Public notice | The Department's category for declaring that a name has been wrongly written, and for the related cases it lists, including a child's or father's record after a re-marriage |
| Change of name | The category for a chosen new name, signed in the old name, using the words henceforth be known as |
| Part IV | The weekly Part of the Gazette of India in which personal notices publish |
| Proforma | The Department's fixed format for a category. Each category has its own, which is why the category has to be settled first |
| Undertaking | Your signed statement that the contents are true and that you accept responsibility if a legal issue arises later |
| Connected legal document | In a correction file, the attested copy of the certificate that actually carries the wrong spelling. This is the paper that proves the error exists |
| CD certificate | Your signed declaration that the printed papers and the soft copy carry the same matter |
| BharatKosh | The Non Tax Receipt Portal, the only channel for the Government fee since October 2018 |
| Corrigendum | A follow-up notice correcting an error in a notice already published |
| Alias | The form that lets two versions of a name stand together, where live documents genuinely carry both |
Gazette Route Checks Across Jharkhand
The category check is done on your scans, so it does not matter which district you are in. Send the papers over WhatsApp from anywhere in the state and we will tell you which of the twelve categories your case belongs to before any money is spent.
District pages are linked from the services page.
Send your papers and we will name the category
Photograph the document that carries the wrong name, one document that carries the correct version, and your Aadhaar. The first reply tells you which of the Department's categories your case falls under, whether the issuing office can fix it without any gazette at all, which proforma applies, and what the whole thing will cost before you pay anything. If your matter is one the Department does not publish, we will say so rather than take the file. Details on the contact page.
- 📞Call 9540005002
Monday to Saturday, 9 AM to 6 PM - WhatsApp 9540005064
Send your scans here, it is the fastest way - ✉️info@jharkhandnamechange.com
- 📍Ranchi office: Main Building, Near Shaheed Chowk, Ranchi, Jharkhand 834001
- 🏛️Head office (Gazette filing desk): Metro Pillar No. 377, Near Burari Metro Station, Shop No. B-1, Ground Floor, Gali No. 1, Khasra No. 31/12, Hardev Nagar, Jharoda Majra, Burari, Delhi 110084
Name Correction vs Name Change in the Gazette: Frequently Asked Questions
What is the difference between a name correction and a name change in the gazette?
My JAC marksheet spells my name wrongly. Which one do I need?
What happens if I file a change of name notice for a spelling mistake?
How many categories does the Department of Publication actually have?
Do I sign the proforma in my old name or my correct name?
Is it true that two newspapers are compulsory?
Can an agent submit my gazette file at the Delhi counter?
Will I get my original newspaper and documents back if the file is rejected?
What does the correction file need that a change of name file does not?
Can a gazette notice correct my date of birth as well?
Both spellings are on live documents. Must one of them go?
I am in Ranchi. Is there a gazette office here for either category?
Official Sources on Gazette Notice Categories
- Department of Publication, guidelines for change of nameThe category list itself, including notification of public notice, change of name for an adult or major, minor, maiden surname, different surname, and change of name and gender.
- Department of Publication, Government of IndiaThe office at Civil Lines, Delhi 110054 that publishes personal notices in Part IV.
- e-GazetteWhere a published Part IV notice is searched for and downloaded.
- BharatKosh, Non Tax Receipt PortalThe only channel for the Government fee, and the place to read the current amount.
- Jharkhand Academic CouncilThe board side, where most correction cases in the state begin.
- UIDAIThe Aadhaar rules, which treat a minor edit and a full name change differently.
Correction or Change in the Gazette, in Eight Lines
The short version
- The Department publishes twelve notice categories, not one gazette process.
- A correction is the public notice category, for a name wrongly written.
- A change of name is a separate category, for a name you chose.
- The deciding words are wrongly written as, against henceforth be known as.
- A correction file is signed in your own name, a change in the old name.
- Only a correction file carries the certificate that holds the error.
- Try the issuing office first, because it is cheaper and often enough.
- Both routes go to Civil Lines, Delhi 110054, since Jharkhand has no counter.
Pick the category first. Everything else follows from that one line.
Send the document that carries the wrong name and one that carries the right one, and we will tell you which of the Department's categories your case belongs to before any money is spent.