Name Change Procedure in Maharashtra (2026) Guide

Video guide

Watch: Name Change Procedure in Maharashtra

A quick walkthrough of the affidavit, the gazette office and the state and central routes for a Maharashtra name change.

In this video, the YourDoorstep team explains the name change procedure in Maharashtra: the DGPS online gazette, the two routes, the real fees, and how we handle the whole process at your doorstep.

Changing your name is a big step. Maybe you just got married, you are fixing a spelling mistake in your school certificate, or you want a fresh start after a divorce. Whatever the reason, the name change procedure in Maharashtra follows a clear legal path, and Maharashtra has one of the more usable online gazette systems in the country. This guide breaks down every step in plain words, and shows how to get it done from home, whether you live in Mumbai, Pune, Nagpur, Nashik or Thane.

Quick Answer

To change your name in Maharashtra, follow three steps. Make a notarised affidavit, publish the change in one daily newspaper, then file for a gazette notification. Maharashtra has a strong online State Gazette (DGPS portal) that often publishes in 10 to 15 days, while the Central Gazette (Rs 1,100 adult, Rs 1,700 minor) is valid across India. You can do all of it from home.

Definition: A gazette notification is an official notice published in the Government Gazette that turns your name change into a public, legally recognised record, accepted by the passport office, banks, UIDAI and government departments across India.

Maharashtra name change at a glance

Steps: Affidavit → newspaper ad → gazette notification
Two routes: DGPS State Gazette (online) or Central Gazette
State portal: dgps.maharashtra.gov.in (apply, pay, download by ARN)
Central fee: Rs 1,100 adult, Rs 1,700 minor, Rs 3,500 abroad (BharatKosh)
Time: State: 15 days, a notified limit. Central: no processing time is published
Newspapers: Central: one daily paper, no language prescribed. State: no published requirement found

Key takeaways

The process has three steps: notarised affidavit, newspaper ad, then gazette notification.
Maharashtra runs a strong online State Gazette through the DGPS portal (dgps.maharashtra.gov.in), often published in 10 to 15 days.
Any Maharashtra resident can also apply to the Central Gazette (Gazette of India), valid all over India and abroad.
For a passport, PAN, bank or work abroad, the Central Gazette is the safest choice.
Central Gazette fee: Rs 1,100 adult, Rs 1,700 minor, Rs 3,500 for an adult abroad and Rs 5,100 for a minor abroad, paid online on BharatKosh.
The Central Gazette does not accept documents older than one year, so file while your affidavit and ads are fresh.
Newspapers needed: one daily local leading newspaper for the Central route, with no language prescribed; for the state route we found no published requirement.
A birth certificate spelling fix goes through the local Registrar (RBD Act), not the gazette.

Choose the right route

Maharashtra State Gazette (DGPS) vs Central Gazette

Maharashtra is one of the few states where the state route genuinely works, and the reason is unusual: the gazette name change is a notified service under the Maharashtra Right to Public Services Act, with a statutory time limit and a named appeal ladder. That is a stronger guarantee than any consultancy estimate.

Name change procedure in Maharashtra — the affidavit, the DGPS state gazette and the Central Gazette of India route

Point	Maharashtra State Gazette (DGPS)	Central Gazette of India
Run by	Directorate of Government Printing & Stationery	Department of Publication, Government of India, Delhi
Service name	“Gazzette Part 2 for Change in Name” — भाग २-राजपत्र जाहिरात (नावात बदल). The double z is the portal's own spelling	Change of name notice, Gazette of India Part IV
How you apply	Online, through the Aaple Sarkar service catalogue, administered by the Directorate	File posted or couriered to Civil Lines, Delhi-110054, or handed in personally
Government fee	Two category tiers — see the fee section below. This is not a normal-versus-tatkal split, which is what most pages assume	Rs 1,100 adult, Rs 1,700 minor, Rs 3,500 adult abroad, Rs 5,100 minor abroad (BharatKosh)
Time	15 days — the notified limit under the Right to Public Services Act, not an estimate	Not published anywhere. Any figure you are quoted is someone's estimate
If they miss the deadline	A named appeal ladder: Designated Officer, then First Appellate Officer, then the Manager of the Directorate	No statutory deadline, so no appeal on delay
Language	Published bilingually — your entry appears in Devanagari and Roman script	English
Newspaper advertisement	We found no published DGPS requirement for one. See the newspaper section for why we phrase that carefully	Required — one daily paper, in original
Where to read it afterwards	Free, no login, at egazzete.mahaonline.gov.in under “Part two (Change In Name)”	Free at egazette.gov.in, Part IV
Best for	Records inside Maharashtra, and anyone who wants a deadline they can enforce	Passport, central government jobs, anything abroad

The 15-day rule is the best thing about the Maharashtra route

Most state gazettes publish no turnaround at all, and consultancies fill the silence with guesses. Maharashtra is different. The change-of-name gazette is listed as a notified service under the Right to Public Services Act with a 15-day limit, and the service listing names who to escalate to when that limit passes:

If the deadline passes	Who you go to
Designated Officer	Junior Assistant Manager (Mumbai, Nagpur and Aurangabad divisions); Superintendent (Pune division)
First Appellate Officer	Assistant Manager, Publications (Mumbai, Pune, Nagpur); Assistant Director (Aurangabad)
Second Appellate Officer	Manager, Directorate of Government Printing and Stationery

Source: the state's own service listing for Gazzette Part 2 for Change in Name, Aaple Sarkar, ServiceId 2239. The related services are 2240 for date of birth and 2238 for religion.

One caution about that listing. Its “documents required” field literally reads “No Documents Required”. Do not take that at face value — it is almost certainly an unpopulated field rather than a statement that a bare application suffices. The Directorate's own user manual lists photo, photo ID proof, address proof and the downloaded scanned form as mandatory.

So which one should you actually take?

Fee and speed are the wrong way to decide. Decide by what you have to update afterwards:

If your name has to work on…	Take	Why
A passport, an OCI card, a foreign visa or a job abroad	Central	It is the notification these offices see constantly. Starting with the state one and switching later means paying twice.
A central government or PSU job, or a central recruitment record	Central	Same reason.
Maharashtra state records, school and board certificates, a 7/12 extract, a state job	State (DGPS)	Cheaper, faster, and it comes with an enforceable 15-day deadline.
Aadhaar, PAN and a bank account, and nothing else	Either	Both are accepted. Take the cheaper one.
You genuinely do not know yet	Central	It covers everything the state one covers, and the things it does not. The extra few hundred rupees is cheaper than doing it twice.

The false economy to avoid. The state gazette costs a few hundred rupees against Rs 1,100 for the Central. That saving disappears the moment you need a passport, because you then file the Central one anyway — and you have paid for both. If a passport is anywhere in your five-year plan, start Central.

Infographic: name change in Maharashtra — the DGPS state gazette as a Right to Public Services Act notified service with a notified 15 day limit and a two tier fee of Rs 522.47 open category and Rs 272.47 backward category, against the Central Gazette of India at Rs 1,100 with one newspaper advertisement, the published central rate schedule, the Rs 500 headline affidavit stamp duty from October 2024 with its surviving exemption, the three Regional Passport Offices at Mumbai Pune and Nagpur with twelve districts each, the renamed districts, and five corrected myths — Both Maharashtra routes side by side: who each is for, what each costs, the deadline you can actually enforce, and the five claims other pages get wrong.

The Maharashtra-specific question

Your Name in Two Scripts: Devanagari, Roman and the Gazette

A question we did not see answered on any of the pages we read: what script will my name actually be printed in?

The good news: the Maharashtra gazette is bilingual

We read a published Part Two issue to check this rather than guess. The masthead runs in both languages — “महाराष्ट्र शासन राजपत्र भाग दोन-नाव, वय व धर्म बदलण्याच्या जाहिरातींचा विभाग” and “Government of Maharashtra Gazette Part Two—Notices of Changes in Name, Age and Religion” — and, more importantly, individual entries are printed in Devanagari and Roman script together, each with its own registration number alongside the old name, new name and address.

Why that matters more than it sounds. A state gazette published only in Devanagari would force every bank, passport office and university to transliterate your name themselves, and they would not all do it the same way. Because the Maharashtra entry carries the Roman spelling alongside the Devanagari, an office can match it directly against your Aadhaar, PAN or passport.

The residual risk, and it is entirely yours

The gazette reproduces whatever you submit. Get the Roman spelling wrong at application time and it is wrong in the published notice, and the fix is another application. Marathi and Roman do not map cleanly onto each other, and these are the joints where names break:

The ambiguity	Spellings you will see
व renders as both v and w	Vaishali / Waishali, Vikas / Vikash
श and स both flatten toward s	Shirish / Sirish, Sushma / Shushma
Long and short vowels	Nitin / Niteen, Sunil / Suneel, Deepak / Dipak
The silent final vowel	Sharad / Sharada, Anant / Ananta
ळ has no clean Roman equivalent	Kolhapur / Kholapur, Ambekar / Ambelkar
Aspirated consonants	Bhosale / Bosale, Gharge / Garge

Before you submit, do one thing: write the exact Roman spelling you intend, then hold it against your Aadhaar, PAN, passport, bank record and your children's school records. The spelling that appears most often across them is usually the one to standardise on, because it is the one you will have to correct in the fewest places afterwards. Then check the Devanagari rendering the form produces — auto-transliteration handles ordinary words well and proper nouns badly.

The middle-name question, which is a Maharashtra question

Maharashtra records conventionally run first name + father’s name + surname, and government forms treat that middle field as a real component of your name rather than an optional extra. That produces a specific and very common mess: a married woman whose middle name is her father’s on her school certificate and her husband’s on her Aadhaar, or a document set where the patronymic was dropped or abbreviated to an initial.

The distinction that decides your route is the usual one, and it is worth money:

If it is a data-entry error and your other documents agree with each other, that is a correction at the issuing authority — a form and a small fee, no gazette.
If you are genuinely adopting a different middle name going forward, that is a name change, and it needs the gazette.
If one document abbreviated the patronymic to an initial, that is usually a correction, not a change.

Honest limit: we could not find a government circular defining where correction ends and name change begins. The above reflects how issuing offices in Maharashtra treat these cases in practice, not a published rule. If an office tells you otherwise, the office decides.

One line from the gazette itself worth knowing

“Government accepts no responsibility as to the authenticity of the contents of the notice. Since they are based entirely on the application of the concerned persons without verification.”Printed on the Maharashtra Gazette Part Two, Notices of Changes in Name, Age and Religion

The gazette publishes what you tell it and checks nothing. That is exactly why the spelling work above is yours to do, and why nobody downstream will fix it for you.

On the ground in Maharashtra

7/12 Extracts, Board Certificates, Renamed Districts and the Three Passport Offices

What happens after the gazette — and the Maharashtra-specific places where it does not do the work for you.

A gazette does not update your 7/12 extract

This is the one that catches landowning families, and we found no competing page that mentions it at all — not one contains the words 7/12, Satbara or Mahabhulekh.

Your 7/12 extract (Satbara) records a name that may have been entered decades ago. A gazette notification does not flow into the revenue record; nothing updates automatically. Maharashtra routes record corrections through the e-Hakk system, a separate online application with its own registration where you upload the original handwritten document, run from bhulekh.mahabhumi.gov.in and filed at bhumiabhilekh.maharashtra.gov.in — not the same portal you read the 7/12 on. Treat the gazette as an input to that process, not a replacement for it, and expect it to run on the revenue department’s timeline rather than the gazette’s.

The renamed districts, and why the government disagrees with itself

Maharashtra renamed three districts: Aurangabad became Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar, Osmanabad became Dharashiv, and Ahmednagar became Ahilyanagar. If your birth certificate, school certificate or land record names the old district, the document is not wrong — the district changed under it. That is the answer when an office queries the mismatch.

What nobody tells you is that the government has not finished renaming its own systems, and this has a practical consequence:

Government system	Which name it uses today
The e-gazette portal’s division dropdown	Still “AURANGABAD DIVISION”
The Aaple Sarkar service listing	Still Aurangabad
RPO Mumbai’s jurisdiction list	Still Aurangabad
RPO Pune’s jurisdiction list	Ahilyanagar and Dharashiv — the new names
The state industry department’s office listing	Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar — the new name

The practical consequence: when you go to search for your published notice on the e-gazette portal, you must select “Aurangabad” in the division dropdown. Looking for “Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar” there will find you nothing, because the dropdown has not been renamed.

Reading your own notice afterwards

The public archive is at egazzete.mahaonline.gov.in — note the government’s own misspelling, egazzete with three e’s and two z’s, which is why people mistype it and conclude the portal does not exist. It is free, needs no login, and has a dedicated “Part two (Change In Name)” section in its Section dropdown. Search by Division, Section, date range and gazette type (Ordinary or Extra-Ordinary). The seven divisions are Central Section, Kokan, Pune, Nasik, Nagpur, Amravati and Aurangabad.

Board and university certificates

The Maharashtra State Board sits in Pune with divisional boards across the state. We will not quote you an MSBSHSE correction fee or time limit. We tried to read the Board’s own site and could not — one domain returns no readable text and the other fails its TLS handshake. Every figure circulating on this topic traces to a commercial page or a forum answer, not to the Board.

Ask the Board directly, and ask one question first: whether there is a time limit after your result was declared for a name correction, and what the route becomes once that window has closed. That is the question that decides whether your gazette is enough or whether you need something more, and it is the one nobody publishes an answer to.

Which passport office covers you

Maharashtra’s districts are split across three passport offices — not four. There is no Regional Passport Office at Thane; Thane is a Passport Seva Kendra under RPO Mumbai, which is where the confusion comes from.

Office	Districts, as officially listed	Address & contact
RPO Mumbai	Mumbai City, Mumbai Suburban, Aurangabad, Ratnagiri, Sindhudurg, Thane, Raigad, Palghar, Nashik, Jalgaon, Dhule, Nandurbar — plus Daman and Dadra & Nagar Haveli	Videsh Bhavan, C-45, G Block, Bandra Kurla Complex, Bandra (E), Mumbai-400051 022-26520016 / 17 / 18 rpo.mumbai@cpo.gov.in
RPO Pune	Pune, Ahilyanagar, Beed, Dharashiv, Jalna, Kolhapur, Latur, Nanded, Parbhani, Sangli, Satara, Solapur	Sr. No. 5/2/2, Baner-Pashan Link Road, Baner, Pune-411045 020-27209999 rpo.pune@cpo.gov.in
RPO Nagpur	Akola, Amravati, Bhandara, Buldhana, Chandrapur, Gadchiroli, Gondia, Hingoli, Nagpur, Wardha, Washim, Yavatmal	CGO Complex, B-Block, First Floor, Seminary Hills, Nagpur-440006 0712-2510643, 0712-2511742 (10:00–12:30 only) rpo.nagpur@mea.gov.in

Twelve districts each, and they tile exactly. The three published lists are mutually exclusive and together account for all 36 of Maharashtra’s districts, with no gaps and no overlaps. If your district is not in one list, check the other two — it is in one of them.

Sources: RPO Mumbai, RPO Pune and RPO Nagpur, each office’s own published jurisdiction. Note the naming again: RPO Pune lists Ahilyanagar and Dharashiv, while RPO Mumbai still lists Aurangabad. Two offices of the same department, two conventions. Use whichever name the office you are dealing with uses.

When an office refuses

What to Do When a School or Office Ignores Your Gazette

It happens more than it should. You obtain the gazette notification, take it to a school, a board or a records office, and are told their rules do not permit the change. Maharashtra applicants now have recent, citable authority on exactly this.

In X.Y.Z. and A.B.C. v. The State of Maharashtra and Others, Writ Petition No. 15528 of 2025, decided on 2 February 2026 by the Bombay High Court, Bench at Aurangabad (Smt. Vibha Kankanwadi and Hiten S. Venegavkar, JJ.), a school had refused a single mother's proposal to correct her daughter's name, surname and caste entry in the school record, despite a Gazette notification. The facts were unusual — the father had renounced all parental role — so read it for its approach to blanket refusals rather than as a general rule. The Court allowed the petition and held:

What the Court held: that once a Gazette notification and supporting material are produced, and the competent authority under the relevant code is approached in the prescribed way, the request has to be considered on its merits — a blanket refusal is not open to the authority. We paraphrase rather than quote: the judgment text reaches us through reported copies, and we would rather describe the holding accurately than risk quoting it imprecisely. Read the judgment itself before relying on it.

The Court quashed the refusal and directed the Headmaster to verify the Gazette notification and supporting documents and forward a proposal to the Education Officer, who was to carry out the correction in the General Register and school records.

How to use this if you are stonewalled: the holding is that a blanket refusal is not open to the authority — the request has to be considered on its merits once you produce the gazette and the supporting material, through the prescribed channel. So put your request in writing, attach the gazette notification and supporting documents, and address it through the proper channel rather than over the counter. A written request is what an authority has to answer.

Read the direction precisely. The Court did not hold that a gazette by itself compels an immediate correction. It directed verification and a proposal to the Education Officer, through the procedure the code prescribes. The gazette gets your request considered; it does not bypass the process. Anyone telling you a gazette overrides an institution’s procedure is overstating it. We are a documentation consultancy, not your advocate — if an authority refuses in writing, that is the point to take legal advice.

Where to file

Maharashtra Gazette Office

The Maharashtra State Gazette is run by the Directorate of Government Printing and Stationery and applied for online. For gazette administration the state works in four divisions — Mumbai, Pune, Nagpur and Aurangabad — each with its own designated and appellate officers; the Directorate separately runs several government presses across the state, which is why office counts differ from page to page. Note that dgps.maharashtra.gov.in was unreachable on every attempt while we wrote this. The Central Gazette file goes to the Department of Publication, Civil Lines, Delhi-110054, and the published notice is downloaded from egazette.gov.in.

Watch: Gazette Office in Maharashtra — address of the gazette office, and how the online DGPS route works alongside the Central Gazette in Delhi.

Good to know: the Maharashtra e-Gazette has been online for over a decade, so you apply, pay and download from home. Name changes are published under Maharashtra Government Gazette Part II (Change of Name), and you download the PDF from your dashboard using the ARN. The Central Gazette works the same way at the end: it appears in Part IV of the Gazette of India, published every Saturday, and the PDF you download from egazette.gov.in needs no certification or stamp from the department.

Good news

Change Your Name Without Going Anywhere

Yes. A legal name change in India runs on paperwork, not office visits. The Maharashtra DGPS gazette is mostly online, so you apply, pay and download from home.

For the Central Gazette route, the file must reach the Department of Publication in Delhi, which is far from Maharashtra, so travelling makes no sense. Our own office is in Delhi. You share your details from your home in Maharashtra, we prepare the affidavit, book the newspaper advertisement, pay the government fee in your name, and prepare the complete file. The Department accepts applications only in person or by post and courier, and not through agents or advocates — so it is lodged under your name, not ours. Once it is published, we send you the gazette PDF.

The process

The 3 Legal Steps

Every legal name change follows the same three steps, in this order.

1

Make the affidavit

A short legal statement on stamp paper with your old name, new name, address, age and the reason, signed before a notary.

2

Publish in newspapers

Advertise in one daily local leading newspaper, giving your father’s or husband’s name and address. Keep the complete original page as proof.

3

Get the gazette

Apply online on the DGPS portal and download by ARN, or send the Central file to Delhi for Part IV of the Gazette of India.

Step 1: Make the name change affidavit

An affidavit is a short legal statement on non-judicial stamp paper. It lists your old name, new name, address, age and the reason for the change. You sign it in front of a notary. In Maharashtra the headline affidavit stamp duty is Rs 500, raised from Rs 100 by the Maharashtra Stamp (Amendment) Ordinance, 2024 with effect from 14 October 2024 — so the Rs 10 and Rs 20 figures still printed elsewhere are certainly out of date. A clarification of 30 October 2024 also keeps an exemption alive for affidavits filed before a government authority, so what you actually pay may be less. See the fees section; ask your notary before you budget.

Step 2: Publish the change in one newspaper

For the Central route the guideline asks for the change to be advertised in “one of the daily local leading newspapers” — one paper, with no language prescribed. Lokmat, Loksatta, Sakal and Maharashtra Times carry the widest Marathi readership; The Times of India, Hindustan Times and The Indian Express are equally acceptable. The advertisement must state your father’s or husband’s name and your residential address alongside the old and new name, and the original page must be forwarded. For the state DGPS route we found no published advertisement requirement at all — see the newspaper section for exactly how far that evidence goes.

Step 3: Get the gazette notification

For the Maharashtra State Gazette you apply online through the state's service catalogue; the Directorate's own manual lists photo, photo ID proof, address proof and the downloaded scanned form as the mandatory documents, with an old caste certificate in addition if you are claiming the backward-category fee. Once published, you read the notice free at egazzete.mahaonline.gov.in under “Part two (Change In Name)”. The notified limit is 15 days. For the Central Gazette, the file goes to the Department of Publication, Civil Lines, Delhi-110054, with a typed proforma, two witnesses, a soft copy on CD, and the BharatKosh fee receipt. It is printed in Part IV of the Gazette of India, published every Saturday, and downloaded free from egazette.gov.in.

A quick note on order: the affidavit always comes first, because both the newspaper ad and the gazette file copy their details from it.

One-year rule most people miss: the Department of Publication does not accept documents older than one year. If your affidavit or newspaper pages cross a year before you file the Central Gazette, you will have to make them fresh, so complete the three steps without a long gap.

Fact check

What Other Websites Get Wrong About Name Change in Maharashtra

We read the pages ranking for this topic, and the same errors travel from site to site. Here is what they say, against the verified position, so your file is not built on a myth.

What many websites say	The verified fact
"Submit your papers to the Maharashtra Government's Department of Publication"	No such department exists. The state route runs through the Directorate of Government Printing and Stationery (DGPS), Maharashtra, and the Central route through the Department of Publication in Delhi. Mixing the two names up sends files to the wrong office.
"Maharashtra residents must use the Central Gazette, there is no state option"	Maharashtra runs one of India's most usable state routes: the Maharashtra Government Gazette through DGPS, with online application at dgps.maharashtra.gov.in. Many ranking guides skip it entirely.
"Send your Central Gazette file to Civil Lines, Maharashtra-110054"	No such office exists. 110054 is a Delhi PIN code. The only Central Gazette office is the Department of Publication, Civil Lines, Delhi-110054.
"Attach a demand draft of Rs 1,100 with the file"	Still printed on ranking pages, and still wrong. The Department stopped demand drafts and cash long ago. Payment is online through BharatKosh (NTRP) only, and the fee is non-refundable.
"Your printed gazette copy will arrive by post"	Printed copies stopped from 1 October 2015. You download the PDF yourself from egazette.gov.in (Part IV, published every Saturday), and it needs no certification or stamp.
"The fee is just Rs 1,100, nothing more"	Rs 1,100 is the adult fee for the Central route. A minor is Rs 1,700, an adult abroad Rs 3,500 and a minor abroad Rs 5,100. Adopting a name of another religion without converting adds a one-time Rs 250, making Rs 1,350.
"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.
"The Maharashtra gazette has normal and tatkal (urgent) options"	We could not find it. Pages advertise an urgent tier at Rs 900, Rs 1,800, Rs 2,300 and other figures — several incompatible prices, none sourced — and the page most specifically titled for DGPS omits tatkal entirely. The only two-tier structure we could evidence is open versus backward category, a caste-based concession, which is a different thing altogether. Our own page carried the tatkal claim until this update; we could not stand it up, so we removed it.
"You need two newspaper ads, one Marathi and one English"	The Central guideline says the change should be advertised in "one of the daily local leading newspapers" — one paper, no language prescribed. For the state route we found no published advertisement requirement at all. Most of the pages we examined assert two ads as mandatory without citing a rule; the two that say the opposite are both newspaper-advertising agencies. We printed the two-paper version ourselves. It was wrong.
"Each extra alias name costs Rs 250"	There is no per-alias fee anywhere in the Department's rate order. The Rs 250 is a one-time add-on in a single situation — adopting a name belonging to another religion without converting — taking the total to Rs 1,350. Another correction to our own earlier text.
"A Maharashtra affidavit needs Rs 10 or Rs 20 stamp paper"	Out of date. The Maharashtra Stamp (Amendment) Ordinance, 2024 substituted "Five hundred rupees" for "One hundred rupees" in Schedule I Article 4 from 14 October 2024. But do not swing to the opposite error either: a clarification of 30 October 2024 keeps an exemption alive for affidavits filed before a government authority. Pages printing a flat Rs 100, and pages printing a flat Rs 500, have each read half of this.
"There is a Regional Passport Office at Thane"	There is not. Thane is a Passport Seva Kendra under RPO Mumbai, and Thane district sits inside RPO Mumbai's jurisdiction. Maharashtra has three passport offices — Mumbai, Pune and Nagpur — with twelve districts each.
"The state gazette fee is Rs 523"	Rs 523 is almost certainly Rs 522.47 rounded, so it is undated rather than wrong. The Directorate's own published user manual gives Rs 522.47 open category and Rs 272.47 backward category. We could not open the DGPS site to confirm the live amount, so we say so rather than presenting any figure as certain — which is more than any page quoting a bare number does.
"Apply for the Maharashtra gazette at egazette.maharashtra.gov.in / www.egazette.gov.in"	Four different URLs circulate for the state route, and one top-ranking page gives the Central portal, egazette.gov.in, as the Maharashtra one. The public archive where you read your published notice is egazzete.mahaonline.gov.in — note the government's own misspelling, which is why people mistype it and conclude it does not exist.
"Search the e-gazette for Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar"	You will find nothing. The portal's division dropdown still reads "AURANGABAD DIVISION", and the Aaple Sarkar listing and RPO Mumbai also still use Aurangabad, while RPO Pune uses the new names Ahilyanagar and Dharashiv. The renaming is real; the government has not finished applying it to its own systems.
"A gazette notification updates your 7/12 extract"	It does not, and nothing updates automatically. Maharashtra routes revenue-record corrections through a separate e-Hakk application. The gazette is an input to that process, not a substitute for it. None of the pages we examined mentioned 7/12, Satbara or Mahabhulekh.
"You must have lived in Maharashtra for six months to apply"	Invented. One ranking page states this; it appears on no other page in the field and we found no rule imposing it. Treat eligibility bars that appear on exactly one website with suspicion.
"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 your municipal corporation (like the BMC in Mumbai), not the gazette.

Why this matters: a wrong office name, a stale document or a short payment does not just delay your file, it can mean paying the non-refundable fee again. The corrections in this table follows the official portals in our sources section.

Checklist

Documents Required for Name Change in Maharashtra

Keep these ready. Missing or mismatched papers are the top reason files get held up.

Document	Needed?	Notes
Notarised name change affidavit (original)	Yes	Base document for either route; not older than one year
Old name ID proof	Yes	Aadhaar, PAN, Voter ID or passport
Address proof (Maharashtra)	Yes	Shows your Maharashtra address
Passport-size photograph	Yes	Self-attested
The complete original newspaper page	Yes	Complete original pages, not older than one year
Filled DGPS gazette application form	Yes (State)	Downloaded from the DGPS portal
Typed proforma + CD + BharatKosh receipt	Yes (Central)	Only for the Central Gazette route
Marriage certificate	If applicable	For a surname change after marriage
Divorce papers	If applicable	For restoring your maiden name
Birth certificate + school NOC	If applicable	For a minor's name change
Deed as per rules	If applicable	For government employees

If you are from Maharashtra but living abroad, your deed must be attested by the Indian Embassy or High Commission of that country. Also note that documents once submitted to the Department of Publication are not returned, so keep clear copies of everything with you.

Real costs

Name Change Fees in Maharashtra (2026)

Two costs sit inside a name change: the government publication fee, and the side costs. We source every figure below, and we tell you plainly where our sourcing is weaker than we would like.

Item	Cost
Maharashtra DGPS gazette — open category	Rs 522.47 application form fee — indicative, see the note below
Maharashtra DGPS gazette — backward category	Rs 272.47 application form fee, with an old caste certificate
Central Gazette — adult	Rs 1,100 per case (BharatKosh)
Central Gazette — minor	Rs 1,700 per case (BharatKosh)
Central Gazette — adult living abroad	Rs 3,500
Central Gazette — minor living abroad	Rs 5,100
Central Gazette — change of religion (a separate notice, not an add-on to a name change)	Rs 1,700 per case
Central Gazette — adopting a name of another religion without converting	Rs 1,100 + Rs 250 = Rs 1,350, one time
Affidavit stamp duty in Maharashtra	Rs 500 headline rate since 14 October 2024 — but see the exemption note below

Where the two DGPS figures come from, and how confident we are

Those two figures are the application form fee from the Directorate's own E-Gazette User Manual, published at dgps.maharashtra.gov.in/pdf/E_Gazette_User_Manual_PDF_21.pdf. We confirmed that file exists at that government address and was archived intact in July 2024. We could not open the DGPS site directly to check it is still the live figure — the site refused our connection every way we tried — so treat the amount as indicative and the structure as reliable, and confirm the exact rupee figure on the portal when you file.

The structure is the part that matters, and few pages prints it. Maharashtra charges a lower fee to backward-category applicants, against an old caste certificate. It is a caste-based concession, not a speed option. Of the pages competing for this search, we found only two that mention the second tier at all — most print a single flat number and leave reserved-category applicants paying nearly double what they need to.

“Tatkal” for the Maharashtra gazette: we could not find it. Several pages advertise an urgent tier at anything from Rs 900 to Rs 2,300, with five different prices between them and no source on any of them. We found no published normal-versus-urgent split for DGPS. The only two-tier structure we could evidence is the open-versus-backward category one above. Our own page previously said “normal and urgent (tatkal) options” — we could not stand that up, so it is gone.

The stamp duty question, which is messier than either side admits

Two things are true at once here, and pages tend to print one and ignore the other.

First: the Maharashtra Stamp (Amendment) Ordinance, 2024 (Mah. Ord. XII of 2024), promulgated on 14 October 2024 and deemed in force from that date, amended Schedule I Article 4 so that “for the words ‘One hundred rupees’ the words ‘Five hundred rupees’ shall be substituted”. So the headline duty on an affidavit went from Rs 100 to Rs 500. That much we have read in the amending instrument itself.

Second: a little over two weeks later, on 30 October 2024, the Stamp and Registration Department issued a clarification, widely reported, to the effect that an existing exemption for affidavits and declarations submitted before a government authority remains in force. If that exemption covers your affidavit, the Rs 500 does not bite.

What we will not do is pick one and present it as settled. We have read the Ordinance directly. We have not been able to read the 30 October 2024 clarification itself — only commentary on it — so we cannot tell you with confidence whether a name-change affidavit falls inside that exemption or outside it. Budget for Rs 500, and ask your notary or e-stamp vendor what they will actually charge on the day. Anyone quoting you a flat figure without mentioning that clarification has read half the story.

And the waiver does not help you. In March 2025 Maharashtra waived the Rs 500 affidavit stamp duty — but only for affidavits filed when applying for caste, income and nationality certificates. A name-change affidavit is not in that list. Do not budget on the assumption that it is.

Central rates: Office Order No.76/10&M/2014-16 dated 19 September 2023, in force from 14.06.2021. Stamp duty: Maharashtra Stamp (Amendment) Act, 2024, enacting Mah. Ord. XII of 2024.

There is no per-alias fee. The Rs 250 you will find quoted as a charge for each extra name in your notice does not appear anywhere in the Department's rate order. It is a one-time add-on in exactly one situation — adopting a name belonging to another religion without actually converting — and it brings the total to Rs 1,350. We printed the per-alias version on this page ourselves. It was wrong, and this is the correction.

Pay on the official rail only. The Central fee goes through BharatKosh (NTRP) at bharatkosh.gov.in — the accepted method since 2018, replacing demand drafts and cash. It is non-refundable. Nobody legitimate collects a “government charge” from you in cash.

Public notice

Newspaper Publication in Maharashtra

This step is worth reading carefully, because the two things nearly every page tells you are both questionable.

For the Central Gazette: one paper, not two

The Department of Publication's guideline says:

“Change of name should be advertised in one of the daily local leading newspapers stating therein Father’s/ Husband’s name along with residential address and forward it in original to this department.”Department of Publication — Guidelines for Change of Name for Adult (Major), PDF

One paper, singular. No language is prescribed — there is no requirement for a Marathi paper and none for an English one. Lokmat, Loksatta, Sakal and Maharashtra Times have the deepest Marathi reach; The Times of India, Indian Express and Hindustan Times are equally acceptable. What the guideline does insist on is content: the advertisement must carry your father’s or husband’s name and your residential address, and the paper must be forwarded in original. An advertisement giving only the old and new name is incomplete, and that is a common reason a file comes back.

For the Maharashtra state gazette: we could not find any requirement at all

Most of the pages we examined tell Maharashtra applicants that two advertisements are mandatory for the state route. Not one of them cites a rule. Two pages say the opposite outright — and, revealingly, both of those are newspaper-advertising agencies, who would profit from the requirement being real.

We went looking for the rule ourselves. The state's service listing does not mention an advertisement. The Directorate's own user manual does not mention one. Its mandatory-document list is photo, photo ID proof, address proof and the downloaded scanned form — no newspaper.

How we will and will not put this. We can tell you honestly that we found no published DGPS requirement for a newspaper advertisement. We will not tell you flatly that none exists, because the DGPS site refused our connection and we could not read it end to end. That is a real difference, and any page stating either version as settled fact is going further than its evidence. Ask when you file — and if someone insists you need two advertisements for the state route, ask them to show you the rule.

If you do run an advertisement

Buy two copies of the paper on the day. One goes to Delhi with a Central file and does not come back. If your file is ever queried, or a bank or passport office asks to see the advertisement years later, the second copy is the only proof you will still hold. Keep the complete page — masthead, date and advertisement together — because a clipping with the date cut off cannot be verified. And mind the one-year rule: the Department does not accept documents older than a year, so an old advertisement cannot be reused for a fresh file.

Every document

Name Change Services We Handle in Maharashtra

A gazette on its own is only useful once your other records match it. We help you update your new name across all the documents that matter for Maharashtra residents.

🪪

Aadhaar Card

Name change or spelling correction with the gazette as proof.

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PAN Card

Name update through the NSDL or UTIITSL route.

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Voter ID (EPIC)

Name correction on the electoral roll via Form 8.

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Passport

Re-issue with your new name using the gazette and ads.

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Driving Licence

Name update at the RTO with the gazette copy.

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Bank & KYC

Update your name across bank accounts and KYC records.

🎓

State Board & University

Records for the Maharashtra State Board, CBSE and universities.

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Birth Certificate

Correction through the local Registrar under the RBD Act, not the gazette.

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LIC & Insurance

Name change on policies and insurance records.

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Ration Card & Property

Updates on ration card and property documents.

Tell us which documents you need updated. Call 9540005026 and we guide you through each one after the gazette.

Across Maharashtra

Cities in Maharashtra We Serve

We handle name change work for people all across Maharashtra, from the big cities to smaller towns. Wherever you are, the process runs the same way, and you never have to travel to Delhi.

From Mumbai, Pune and Nagpur to Nashik, Thane, Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar and Solapur, the legal steps are identical, because a name change runs on paperwork, not on which district of Maharashtra you live in. The same file works across the state, and birth certificate corrections stay with your municipal corporation, like the BMC in Mumbai.

Mumbai Pune Nagpur Nashik Thane Navi Mumbai Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar Solapur Kolhapur Amravati Nanded Sangli Jalgaon Akola Latur Ahilyanagar (Ahmednagar) Dhule Chandrapur Kalyan-Dombivli Vasai-Virar Bhiwandi Malegaon

Do not see your town? We still cover it. Call 9540005026 and we will confirm.

Keep reading

Related Guides on This Site

How to change your name legally in Mumbai

The same routes written as a Mumbai walkthrough, with the local gazette office detail.

How to change your name legally in Pune

The Pune walkthrough, with the local office and the Pune-specific steps.

Name change agent in Maharashtra

What a consultant actually does, what it should cost, and how to tell a government fee from a service charge.

Name change procedure in Madhya Pradesh

A neighbouring state with a different answer — useful if your documents straddle the two.

Name change procedure in Gujarat

Another state that runs its own gazette route, and a useful contrast with how Maharashtra's works.

Name change procedure in Delhi

Where your Central Gazette file physically goes. Useful if you plan to hand it in rather than post it.

The pages linked above are live on this site.

Next step

After the Gazette: Update Your Records

Once your name change is published, use the gazette PDF to update your other records. This is the final and often the slowest part, so start early.

Document	How to update
Aadhaar	Update at an Aadhaar Seva Kendra with the gazette as proof
PAN	Apply for name correction through NSDL or UTIITSL
Passport	Apply for re-issue with the gazette notification
Driving licence	Visit the RTO with the gazette copy
Bank accounts	Visit your branch with the gazette, affidavit and ID
Voter ID	Submit Form 8 for correction
State Board / university records	Contact your board or university with the gazette
Employer records	Inform HR with the gazette copy

Keep several printouts of the gazette, because every office will want its own copy. We can also handle these updates for you.

Special cases

Marriage, Divorce, Minors & Spelling

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After marriage

Add your marriage certificate to the file. The affidavit states your maiden name and married name. The three steps stay the same.

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After divorce

You can return to your maiden name through the same process. Keep your divorce papers ready. No separate court order is needed just to restore a maiden name.

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For a minor

The parent or guardian signs the affidavit and applies with the child's birth certificate and school NOC. The Central Gazette fee for a minor is Rs 1,700.

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Spelling & birth certificate

A simple spelling case states the wrong and correct spelling in the affidavit. A birth certificate correction, though, goes through the local Registrar under the RBD Act, not the gazette.

Expert insights

Three Things the Experienced Know

⚡

Use Maharashtra's fast state gazette

For most name changes within India, the DGPS state gazette is quick and cheaper, often published in about two weeks. Move to the Central Gazette when your name has to work on a passport or abroad.

🔤

Match your name letter for letter

The single reason files fail is a spelling gap between the affidavit, the newspaper ad and the ID proof. The gazette prints exactly what you type, so pick one exact spelling and use it everywhere.

📜

Know the birth certificate exception

A spelling fix on a birth certificate is not a gazette job. It goes through the local Registrar under the RBD Act. For a CBSE school name change, you may also need a court order along with the gazette.

Honest view

Benefits & Drawbacks of the Gazette Route

✔ Maharashtra is fast and mostly online

The DGPS state gazette often publishes in 10 to 15 days, and you apply, pay and download from home.

✔ Central Gazette accepted everywhere

A Central Gazette notification is accepted as supporting proof by UIDAI, the passport office, banks and universities across India.

✔ Done from anywhere in Maharashtra

The whole process runs on paperwork, so a resident of Nagpur or Kolhapur completes it without travelling to Delhi.

✕ The central route takes weeks and needs ads

For pan-India validity, the Central Gazette needs one newspaper advertisement, and the Department publishes no processing time at all.

✕ Mistakes cost money and time

A wrong fee category or a spelling gap can mean a rejection, a fresh payment and a restart, because the gazette fee is non-refundable.

✕ The central file is physical

Fee payment and download are online, but the Central Gazette file still has to reach the Delhi office.

Avoid these

Common Mistakes to Avoid

Mistake	Why it hurts
Different spellings across affidavit, ad and ID	Top cause of rejection
Typing the new name wrong in the online form	The gazette prints exactly what you enter
Wrong stamp paper value	Can make the affidavit invalid
Not keeping the full original newspaper pages	You cannot prove the publication
Uploading blurry or oversized scans on the DGPS portal	Application gets rejected
Using documents more than one year old	The Department of Publication does not accept documents older than one year
Paying an “alias fee” nobody charges	There is no per-alias fee. The only add-on is Rs 250 for adopting a name of another religion without converting
Choosing the state gazette when the name is needed abroad	You may have to redo it through the Central Gazette
Wrong fee category or amount on the portal	Payment rejected or mismatched, and the fee is non-refundable

Why YourDoorstep

Why People in Maharashtra Choose Us

⚡

We pick the right route

We know when the fast DGPS state gazette is enough, and when the Central Gazette is worth it.

📰

Correctly worded ads

We book the advertisement in the paper you choose, in the format the Department asks for — father’s or husband’s name and address included.

📱

No office visit

Everything runs on call, WhatsApp and a short form. You stay home anywhere in Maharashtra.

🧾

One team for everything

The gazette plus updating Aadhaar, PAN, passport and the rest, with clear pricing and no hidden charges.

An example of a case we handle. A working professional in Pune got married and wanted her new surname on her passport and bank records. Because she needed pan-India validity for a work visa later, we went the Central Gazette route, drafted the affidavit, arranged the notary, booked the newspaper advertisement, paid the BharatKosh fee, and prepared the complete kit for filing in Delhi. In a few weeks the notice appeared in Part IV, and she used the gazette PDF to update her passport and bank. She never left Pune. This is an illustrative example of the type of case we handle, not a named client review.

Quick Answers to Common Searches

How fresh do my documents need to be? The Department of Publication does not accept documents older than one year, so complete the affidavit, the newspaper advertisement and the gazette filing without a long gap. Documents once submitted are not returned.

Is there a "Maharashtra Department of Publication"? No. That name mixes up two different offices. The state route runs through DGPS Maharashtra (dgps.maharashtra.gov.in), and the Central Gazette runs through the Department of Publication in Civil Lines, Delhi-110054 only.

Does Maharashtra have its own online gazette portal? Yes, the DGPS portal at dgps.maharashtra.gov.in, run by the Directorate of Government Printing and Stationery. It is one of the smoother state gazette systems in India.

How long does the Maharashtra gazette take? The DGPS state gazette often publishes in about 10 to 15 days. The Department of Publication publishes no processing time for the Central Gazette at all. Applicants commonly report about four to six weeks, but that is an observation, not a published figure.

Where is the Maharashtra gazette office? The Directorate of Government Printing and Stationery, with in-person offices in Mumbai, Pune, Nagpur and Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar, and the online portal dgps.maharashtra.gov.in.

How much does the Central Gazette cost? Rs 1,100 for adults and Rs 1,700 for minors, paid on BharatKosh (NTRP). The fee is non-refundable.

Is a birth certificate name change done through the gazette? No. A birth certificate correction goes through the local Registrar under the RBD Act, not the gazette.

Let YourDoorstep handle it for you

We pick the right route, prepare the affidavit, book the newspaper advertisement, handle the gazette fee, and file through the DGPS portal or help you with the Central Gazette, then guide you on updating Aadhaar, PAN and passport. Doorstep service, honest pricing.

📞9540005026
💬WhatsApp 9540005064
✉️ support@yourdoorstep.co.in
🕘 Mon to Sat, 9 AM to 6 PM

Call Now WhatsApp

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People also search for

Frequently Asked Questions

How can I change my name through the gazette in Maharashtra?+

Make a notarised affidavit, publish the change in one daily newspaper, then file for a gazette notification. You can use the Maharashtra DGPS state gazette online, or the Central Gazette for pan-India validity.

Does Maharashtra have its own online gazette portal?+

Yes, the DGPS portal at dgps.maharashtra.gov.in, run by the Directorate of Government Printing and Stationery. It is one of the smoother state gazette systems in India.

What is the fee for name change in Maharashtra?+

The Maharashtra State Gazette has two category tiers, open and backward category — not a normal-versus-urgent split. The Central Gazette fee is Rs 1,100 for adults and Rs 1,700 for minors, paid on BharatKosh. Applicants abroad pay Rs 3,500, or Rs 5,100 for a minor. Stamp paper, notary and the newspaper advertisement are extra.

How long does a name change take in Maharashtra?+

The DGPS state gazette often publishes in about 10 to 15 days. The Department of Publication publishes no processing time for the Central Gazette at all. Applicants commonly report about four to six weeks, but that is an observation, not a published figure.

Do I have to go to Delhi for the Central Gazette?+

No. But note who may lodge it: the Department's guidelines say an application “either submitted personally or sent by Post/ Courier only will be entertained. No other channel is permissible viz Agents, Advocates, etc.” So the file goes in under your own name, by post or courier. We prepare and check it; you or your courier lodge it. You never have to travel to Delhi.

Is the Maharashtra State Gazette valid for a passport?+

The Maharashtra gazette is widely accepted, but for a passport, PAN, bank or work abroad the Central Gazette is the safest choice, since it is accepted across India and by embassies.

Where is the Maharashtra gazette office?+

The Directorate of Government Printing and Stationery, with the online portal dgps.maharashtra.gov.in and in-person offices in Mumbai, Pune, Nagpur and Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar.

Which cities in Maharashtra do you serve?+

We serve Mumbai, Pune, Nagpur, Nashik, Thane, Navi Mumbai, Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar, Solapur, Kolhapur, Amravati, Nanded, Sangli, Jalgaon and nearby towns.

Do you help update Aadhaar, PAN, Voter ID and birth certificate after the gazette?+

Yes. We help update Aadhaar, PAN, Voter ID, passport, driving licence, bank records, Maharashtra State Board and university certificates, and insurance policies with your gazette PDF. Birth certificate corrections are handled through the local Registrar route, not the gazette.

Where do I read my published notice once it is out?+

At egazzete.mahaonline.gov.in for the Maharashtra gazette — free, no login, and note the government's own misspelling of the address. Select your Division, choose “Part two (Change In Name)” and set a date range. If your division is Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar, select “AURANGABAD DIVISION”, because the dropdown has not been renamed. For the Central Gazette it is egazette.gov.in, Part IV. The downloaded PDF is the record and needs no stamp, seal or certification.

Where do I download my gazette once it is published?+

For the Maharashtra gazette, from your dashboard on dgps.maharashtra.gov.in using the ARN. For the Central Gazette, from egazette.gov.in under Weekly Gazette, Part IV, published every Saturday. The downloaded PDF needs no certification or stamp from the department.

Do I need a lawyer to change my name in Maharashtra?+

No. A notary attests the affidavit. Help from a consultant mainly saves you from format mistakes and rejections.

Can I change my name without a gazette notification?+

For small local needs an affidavit may pass, but for passport, PAN, bank and job records most departments now ask for the gazette.

Which newspapers should I use in Maharashtra?+

One daily local leading newspaper is what the Central guideline asks for, with no language prescribed. Lokmat, Loksatta, Sakal or Maharashtra Times in Marathi, or The Times of India, Hindustan Times or The Indian Express in English, are all acceptable.

I want to change my surname after marriage. What extra do I need?+

Add your marriage certificate to the file. The affidavit states your maiden name and married name. The rest is the same.

Do I need signatures from two gazetted officers on my affidavit?+

For an ordinary name change, no. That extra step mainly applies to government employees, who follow their department's deed rules.

What if there is a spelling mismatch in my documents?+

Mismatched spellings across the affidavit, newspaper ad and ID proof are the biggest cause of rejection. Every spelling must match exactly, since the gazette prints exactly what you enter.

How old can my affidavit and newspaper advertisement be?+

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. Also note that documents once submitted are not returned.

How do I update Aadhaar and PAN after the gazette?+

Use the gazette PDF as proof and apply through the normal Aadhaar and PAN update routes, or let us handle it for you.

Can NRIs from Maharashtra change their name?+

Yes, with valid Indian ID and a Maharashtra address proof. Someone living abroad needs the deed attested by the Indian Embassy or High Commission, and the Central Gazette fee for applicants living abroad is Rs 3,500 as per the Department of Publication guidelines.

People also search for: Name change agent in Mumbai, DGPS Maharashtra gazette, name change in birth certificate Maharashtra, Maharashtra gazette download ARN, surname change after marriage, passport name change process, Aadhaar name change online.

Verified against

Official Sources & References

The portals, offices and rules on this page are checked against official Government sources, not copied from other blogs.

Directorate of Government Printing & Stationery, Maharashtra (DGPS)Official portal for the Maharashtra e-Gazette (Part II Change of Name): apply and track. Note: this site was unreachable on every attempt while we wrote this page. The public archive at egazzete.mahaonline.gov.in is a separate system and was working normally.
e-Gazette portal, Government of IndiaWhere the published Central Gazette (Part IV) notification is downloaded every Saturday.
BharatKosh (NTRP), Ministry of FinanceOfficial portal for paying the Central Gazette name change fee (Rs 1,100 adult, Rs 1,700 minor).
myAadhaar, UIDAIFor updating your name on Aadhaar after the gazette is published.

Government fees and timelines can be revised from time to time. Always confirm the current figures on the official portals above before you apply.

In short

The Short Version

Changing your name in Maharashtra is smoother than in most states, because the DGPS state gazette is largely online and often published in about two weeks. For a name accepted everywhere, use the Central Gazette, which needs one newspaper advertisement and costs Rs 1,100 for adults and Rs 1,700 for minors. Either way, the three steps stay the same: affidavit, newspaper ad, gazette notification, and none of your papers should be older than one year when you file. Remember that a birth certificate fix is a Registrar job, not a gazette one. Whether you are in Mumbai, Pune, Nagpur or Nashik, you can get your name changed from home, and we update your Aadhaar, PAN and passport once it is done.