Complete 2026 guide for Dispur residents: notarised affidavit, Assamese and English newspaper ads, and Gazette notification through Assam State Gazette or Central Gazette. Real fees, timelines, and documents.
Everything you need to know before starting your name change in Dispur.
How much does the Central Gazette cost for Dispur residents? Rs 1,100 for adults and Rs 1,700 for minors, paid on BharatKosh (NTRP). Each extra alias name adds Rs 250, applicants living abroad pay Rs 3,500, and the fee is non-refundable.
How fresh do my documents need to be? The Department of Publication does not accept documents older than one year, so complete the affidavit, newspaper ads and gazette filing without a long gap. Documents once submitted are not returned.
Watch these step-by-step videos to understand the Gazette process in Assam.
Every legal name change in India, Dispur included, runs through the same three stages. Doing one or two of them does not finish the job.
You swear an affidavit on non-judicial stamp paper stating your old name, new name, father's or husband's name, address, and the reason for the change. It is signed before a Notary Public in the Dispur or Guwahati area. You can buy stamp paper through authorised vendors.
You publish a short name-change notice in two newspapers, one in Assamese (the state language) and one in English. The notice carries your old name, new name, father's or husband's name, and address. Keep the original printed pages, not phone photos, because they go into your Gazette file.
You submit the affidavit, both newspaper cuttings, identity and address proof, a photo, a signed declaration, and a soft copy, along with the Government fee. Once published, the Gazette notification is your permanent legal proof.
The affidavit alone will not update your Aadhaar. The newspaper ad alone will not satisfy a passport office. It is the Gazette notification that carries legal weight, and only once all three steps are done in order.
This guide covers the whole procedure for anyone in Dispur and the surrounding Guwahati area.
Taking a spouse's surname and need it recognised across Aadhaar, PAN, passport, and bank records.
Assam state Government employees, since Dispur houses the Secretariat and Janata Bhawan, who need consistent names across service records and PAN.
Correcting names on school and board records (SEBA, AHSEC, CBSE).
Need matching names across all identity documents for international travel.
Reverting to a maiden or previous name after divorce.
Fixing spelling errors or changing name for numerology, religion, or personal reasons.
The foundation of your name change. Get this right and the rest follows smoothly.
The affidavit is a sworn legal document on non-judicial stamp paper. It must clearly state:
Buy non-judicial stamp paper from authorised vendors in Dispur or Guwahati. Stamp paper cost ranges from Rs 10 to Rs 100 depending on the value. The affidavit is then signed before a Notary Public in the Dispur or Guwahati area. Notary charges typically range from Rs 100 to Rs 500 including drafting assistance.
Important: The name spelling on the affidavit must match exactly across all documents. One extra initial, a swapped middle name, or a different spelling will cause rejection at the Gazette stage.
North-India name-change guides routinely tell you to publish in Hindi, which is wrong for Assam.
In Dispur and Guwahati, the main language is Assamese, so you publish in one Assamese daily and one English daily. The point is the pairing: one Assamese, one English, both carrying exactly the same details as your affidavit.
Assamese newspapers available in Dispur/Guwahati:
English newspapers available in Dispur/Guwahati:
The newspaper notice is a small classified ad that carries your old name, new name, father's or husband's name, and address. It does not need to be a large display ad. Keep the original printed pages with the newspaper masthead and date clearly visible. Phone photos are not accepted by the Gazette office. Original cuttings are required.
Newspaper ad cost is the biggest variable in the entire process, ranging from Rs 400 to Rs 3,000 depending on which papers you choose and their classified rates.
Choose your route: Assam State Gazette (local, convenient) or Central Gazette (widest acceptance).
Once your affidavit is notarised and your newspaper ads are published, you apply for the Gazette notification. This is the step that gives your name change legal force across Government offices, banks, and institutions.
| Factor | Assam State Gazette | Central Gazette |
|---|---|---|
| Office location | Bamunimaidam, Guwahati 781021 (branch press at Dispur) | Civil Lines, Delhi 110054 |
| Portal | dpns.assam.gov.in | egazette.gov.in |
| Publication cycle | Weekly, every Wednesday | Weekly/fortnightly |
| Fee | Nominal state fee | Rs 1,100 (major), Rs 1,700 (minor) via Bharatkosh |
| Best for | State records, local matters | Passport, visa, PAN, central jobs, records outside Assam |
| Acceptance | Valid within Assam | Accepted across India and abroad |
| Courier needed | No, submit locally | Yes, file goes to Delhi by post/courier |
| Download | dpns.assam.gov.in | egazette.gov.in (Part IV) |
Use the Central Gazette if you need the change for:
Use the Assam State Gazette if:
One clarification: The Central Gazette is only compulsory for central Government employees. For everyone else it is a strong recommendation for wide acceptance, not a legal compulsion.
Here is Dispur's real advantage. The state gazette authority is right here.
Because Dispur is the seat of the Assam Government within Guwahati, the state gazette authority is right here. The Assam Gazette is published by the Directorate of Printing and Stationery, Government of Assam, at Bamunimaidam, Guwahati 781021 (portal dpns.assam.gov.in), printed at the Assam Government Press, with a branch press at Dispur and another at Jorhat. The Assam Gazette is published weekly, every Wednesday.
If you use the Central Gazette, your file goes to the Department of Publication, Civil Lines, Delhi 110054, published in Part IV and downloadable from egazette.gov.in. There is no Central Gazette counter in Assam, and the Controller of Publications sits in Delhi, not Assam. Since Delhi is far from Dispur, that file travels by post, courier, or through a representative.
So for a Dispur resident, the state route is the more convenient one to reach. The trade off is acceptance, which we covered above.
Filing from elsewhere in the Northeast? The Central Gazette route is identical across the region. See the Shillong guide for the hill capital next door (whose presses printed Assam's gazette till 1954), our Meghalaya guide, the Agartala guide, and the Delhi guide for where the central files land.
The pages ranking for this topic copy each other, and the same errors travel from site to site. Here is what they say, checked directly against the Directorate of Printing and Stationery's own published procedure.
| What many websites say | The verified fact |
|---|---|
| "Submit your application to the Department of Publication, Delhi, online via egazette.nic.in" | Double error. egazette.nic.in is the old address, the portal now lives at egazette.gov.in, and even the current portal is search and download only. Nobody applies on it: the central file reaches Delhi by post or in person, and the fee is paid on BharatKosh. |
| "Get your gazette name change done for just Rs 999" | The Central Gazette government fee alone is Rs 1,100 for an adult on BharatKosh, so no honest all-inclusive service can cost Rs 999. Teaser pricing quietly excludes the gazette fee, stamp paper, notary and newspaper ads. |
| "The Department of Publication works under the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs, Government of Assam, and prints the Gazette of Assam and the Delhi Gazette" | Three errors in one line. The Department of Publication is a Government of India office, not Assam's. It publishes the Gazette of India, there is no "Delhi Gazette" for name changes. And the Assam Gazette is printed by a completely different office, the Directorate of Printing and Stationery at Bamunimaidam, Guwahati. |
| "The Gazette is published by the Ministry of Home and Urban Affairs" | There is no such ministry. The Department of Publication works under the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs, and the weekly gazette appears on egazette.gov.in. |
| "A notarised affidavit on Rs 100 stamp paper is required" | No law fixes a single stamp paper value for a name change affidavit. Stamp practice varies by state, and what actually matters is that the affidavit is properly drafted and notarised. Paying for a higher denomination does not make the affidavit more valid. |
| "Submit a CD with the typed content and a Demand Draft of the fee" | Both belong to the old process. There is no CD and no demand draft today: the Central Gazette fee is paid online through BharatKosh (NTRP) only, and Assam's own route runs on the Public Notice form and paper checklist published by the Directorate at Bamunimaidam. |
| "Get a name change form from your local courthouse, and after approval you receive a court order" | The gazette route never touches a courthouse. There is no court form, no approval of reasons and no court order. It is a notification process: affidavit, two newspaper ads, then the gazette, whether that is the Assam Gazette or the Central Gazette. |
| "One ad must be in the regional language, Hindi" | Hindi is not Assam's regional language, Assamese is, and for a simple name change there is no language restriction at all. In Dispur one Assamese daily plus one English daily is the practical pair, and the Assam Gazette itself publishes in English and Assamese. |
| "Your printed gazette copy will arrive by post" | Printed Central Gazette copies stopped from 1 October 2015. You download the PDF from egazette.gov.in (Part IV, published every Saturday), and Assam Gazette weekly issues are archived on dpns.assam.gov.in. Neither needs certification. |
| "Any old affidavit and newspaper ad will work" | The Department of Publication does not accept documents older than one year, and documents once submitted are not returned. |
| "Fix your birth certificate spelling through the gazette" | A birth certificate correction is a Registrar matter under Section 15 of the Registration of Births and Deaths Act, 1969, through Guwahati Municipal Corporation or your local Registrar in Assam, not the gazette. |
Double-check every item before submission to avoid rejection.
Transparent breakdown of every cost you'll face.
| Item | Typical Cost |
|---|---|
| Stamp paper for affidavit | Rs 10 to Rs 100 |
| Notary and affidavit drafting | Rs 100 to Rs 500 |
| Newspaper ads (Assamese and English) | Rs 400 to Rs 3,000 (depends on the papers) |
| Assam State Gazette fee | Nominal state fee (varies) |
| Central Gazette fee (via Bharatkosh) | Rs 1,100 (major) or Rs 1,700 (minor) |
| Extra alias name in the notice | Rs 250 per alias, added to the gazette fee |
| Central Gazette fee (living abroad) | Rs 3,500 as per the Department of Publication guidelines (BharatKosh) |
| Courier of file to Delhi (Central route) | Rs 150 to Rs 400 (longer distance from Assam) |
| Self-done total | Roughly Rs 1,000 to Rs 3,000 or more |
| Agent or consultancy service fee (optional) | Varies by provider |
Two honest notes: newspaper cost is the biggest variable, and the Central Gazette fee is not refundable even if the file is rejected. That is exactly why matching your documents correctly the first time matters so much.
Plan for about four to six weeks end to end. The affidavit and notarisation take a day. The newspaper publication takes a few days to a week. The Gazette processing is the longest stage: the Central Gazette commonly takes 30 to 45 days, and add a little for the longer courier distance, while the Assam State Gazette follows its weekly Wednesday publication cycle. Updating your individual documents afterward, such as Aadhaar, PAN, and passport, is a separate timeline on top of this.
Getting the Gazette is the milestone, not the finish line. Order matters, because some documents lean on others.
Update at an Aadhaar Seva Kendra using the Gazette notification. Aadhaar is the base ID most other updates reference.
Correct the name with your updated Aadhaar and the Gazette copy.
The Passport Seva Kendra accepts the Central Gazette for a major name change, so book a re-issue.
Submit the Gazette copy, affidavit, and newspaper ads to update all bank records.
Update these secondary IDs once Aadhaar and PAN are corrected.
Boards (SEBA, AHSEC, CBSE) accept the Gazette as proof. Follow their formal correction process.
For each update, submit the affidavit, the newspaper ad, and the Gazette notification together.
Most rejections come from avoidable mismatches. Watch for these.
A name mismatch across the affidavit, newspaper ads, and identity proof, even a single extra initial, is the top reason for rejection.
Two English or two Assamese papers instead of one of each. Assam requires one Assamese and one English, not Hindi.
A photo or scan of the newspaper instead of the original printed page with masthead and date.
An incomplete proforma or a missing signed declaration that both copies of the specimen form match.
Typos in the application text, since the Gazette prints exactly what you submit.
The wrong fee category or a missing Bharatkosh receipt. Remember, the fee is not refundable.
Blurry or expired identity or address proof, or photos older than six months.
Choosing the state Gazette when your employer or passport office specifically requires the Central Gazette.
Because the fee is not refundable, a rejection means paying again, so double-check carefully, or use someone who does this daily, before the file goes out.
Mostly, not entirely. Here is the honest breakdown.
You can do online: draft the affidavit template, book newspaper ads through newspaper websites or agencies, pay the Central Gazette fee through Bharatkosh (bharatkosh.gov.in), and download the Central Gazette PDF from egazette.gov.in once published.
You cannot do purely online: the affidavit needs a physical signature before a notary, and for the Central route the physical file must reach Delhi by post or courier. The Assam State Gazette also requires physical submission or in-person follow-up at the Directorate of Printing and Stationery in Guwahati.
The honest version is: mostly online, with one notary step and physical submission for the Gazette. Be cautious of anyone claiming "100 percent online."
Different life situations need the same three steps, with small additions.
A woman changing her surname follows the same three steps and adds her marriage certificate. Taking a spouse's surname is a choice, not a legal requirement, but if you do it, the Gazette notification is what makes it stick across Aadhaar, PAN, passport, and bank records.
Reverting to a maiden or previous name uses the same affidavit, newspaper, and Gazette route, with the divorce decree as supporting proof. The process itself does not change. Only the stated reason and supporting document differ. You do not need a fresh court case just to change the name back.
The steps mirror the adult process, except a parent or legal guardian applies and signs on the child's behalf, with the child's birth certificate attached. The Government fee for a minor is usually higher, often around Rs 1,700 for the Central route. Parents use this route to correct or change a child's name for school and board records.
A clerical or spelling error in a birth certificate is corrected by the Registrar of Births and Deaths under Section 15 of the Registration of Births and Deaths Act, 1969, through the local municipal body (Guwahati Municipal Corporation or your area's registrar). It is not a Gazette job. The Gazette route is for an actual change of name.
Dispur houses the Assam Secretariat and Janata Bhawan. State Government employees can route service-record name changes through the state gazette process. Central Government employees follow the Ministry of Home Affairs Office Memorandum No. 190016/1/87-Estt.(A) dated 12/03/1987, executing a deed and publishing through the proper departmental channel.
Changing name for religious conversion or numerology follows the exact same three-step process. State your reason clearly in the affidavit. No additional court order is required for a simple name change.
The Department of Publication does not accept documents older than one year, so file while your affidavit and newspaper ads are fresh. Documents once submitted are not returned, so keep clear copies of everything.
Doing it yourself is possible. Here is when professional help makes sense.
Doing it yourself is possible and saves the service fee, if you have time to draft the affidavit correctly, book two ads, prepare the file, pay the fee, and either submit to the state press or courier a matched file to Delhi. The trade off is rejection risk, since one small mismatch means a restart, minus the non-refundable fee.
A name change agent in Dispur handles the affidavit, newspaper booking, file preparation, fee, and submission, and tracks publication for you. Using a name change agent in Dispur is the sensible choice when:
Given the distance to the Central Gazette office in Delhi, experienced help in Dispur is especially valuable for the Central route.
These are the searches people run right after this one. Here is the short, verified answer to each.
Central Gazette government fee: Rs 1,100 adult, Rs 1,700 minor on BharatKosh, plus Rs 250 per extra alias and Rs 3,500 if you live abroad. The Assam Gazette route has its own modest fee at the Directorate. Stamp paper, notary and two newspaper ads come on top.
The Assam Gazette runs from the Directorate of Printing and Stationery, Bamunimaidam, Guwahati-21, minutes from Dispur, with the application addressed to The Publisher, Assam Gazette. Central Gazette files go to the Department of Publication, Civil Lines, Delhi-110054, public dealing 10 AM to 1 PM and 2 PM to 4 PM.
State route: weekly issues are archived on dpns.assam.gov.in, with personal name notices in Part I. Central route: search your name on egazette.gov.in under Weekly Gazette, Part IV, published every Saturday. Neither PDF needs certification.
Entirely your choice, nothing in law requires it. If you do want a change, the same three steps apply with your marriage certificate added. No court appearance is needed.
Partly online: BharatKosh payment and the final download from egazette.gov.in happen online, and Assam issues sit on dpns.assam.gov.in. The complete central file reaches Delhi by post, which works fine from Dispur.
Assam boards and universities update records against the gazette notification, so complete the gazette first. Board-specific forms and timelines then apply on top of it.
Legally you can file yourself, since the process is paperwork, not court. An agent mainly saves you from format rejections, and because the fee is non-refundable, one bounced file costs more than most assistance. Call 9540005026.
Explore our other verified guides: our national hub Name Change Service in India, How to Change Name Legally in India, and our Northeast neighbours: the Shillong guide next door and the Agartala guide. Same verified facts, local routes.
Straight answers to the questions that come up again and again.
Sign a notarised affidavit, publish the change in one Assamese and one English newspaper, then apply for a Gazette name change in Dispur through the Assam State Gazette or the Central Gazette. All three steps are needed.
One Assamese daily and one English daily, not Hindi. Assamese options include Amar Asom, Asomiya Pratidin, or Dainik Asam, paired with an English paper such as The Assam Tribune or The Sentinel.
The Assam state gazette is published by the Directorate of Printing and Stationery at Bamunimaidam, Guwahati, with a branch press at Dispur. The Central Gazette office is in Delhi.
Both are valid. Use the Central Gazette for passport, visa, and central jobs, since it is accepted everywhere. The Assam State Gazette, published here, works well if your records stay within the state.
About four to six weeks. The Central Gazette route commonly takes 30 to 45 days, and add a little for the courier distance; the Assam Gazette follows its weekly Wednesday cycle.
Roughly Rs 1,000 to Rs 3,000 or more if you do it yourself, mainly depending on newspaper charges. Agent fees are separate.
Use the Central Gazette route, then apply for a passport re-issue with the Gazette copy, affidavit, and old passport, so your passport matches your other records.
Central Gazette (Part IV) from egazette.gov.in; the Assam State Gazette through the Directorate of Printing and Stationery portal, dpns.assam.gov.in.
No. That is a Registrar correction under Section 15 of the RBD Act, 1969, through your local registrar, not the Gazette.
Not necessarily. You can do it yourself, but a name change agent in Dispur helps when time is short, there is a deadline, or your case is complicated.
State employees can route service-record changes through the state gazette; central Government employees follow the MHA Office Memorandum route through their department. Confirm with your establishment section first.
Not more than one year. The Department of Publication does not accept documents older than one year, so file the gazette while your papers are fresh. Documents once submitted are not returned, so keep clear copies.
YourDoorStep provides name change assistance across Assam and the entire North East.
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Changing your name in Dispur is a clear, three-step legal process, an affidavit, a newspaper publication, and a Gazette notification, with two Assam-specific points to get right: publish in one Assamese and one English newspaper, not Hindi, and choose your Gazette by where you need the name recognised.
The Assam Government Press is right here in the Dispur and Guwahati area, which makes the state route locally convenient, a real plus given the distance to Delhi. But for a passport, visa, or central Government job, the Central Gazette is the safer pick because it is accepted everywhere.
Either way, match your name exactly across every document, keep your original newspaper pages, and update your records in the right order, starting with Aadhaar. If your case is simple and you have the time, you can do it yourself. If there is a deadline, a minor, a divorce, a service record, or an existing spelling error in the mix, experienced help in Dispur is the safer call, especially with the Central office so far away.
Call YourDoorStep today for a free consultation. We handle affidavits, newspaper ads, Gazette filing, and document updates across Assam.