Father's Name Correction in Passport in West Bengal: Whose Name Changed Decides Everything
Almost every guide on this subject sends you to an affidavit, two newspaper advertisements and a gazette. For a misspelt parent's name that is usually more than the passport office asks for. The practice is to supply two public documents carrying your father's correct name. The gazette belongs to a different situation: when your father has genuinely changed his own name, and then it is his notification, not yours.
Get Call and Name Change Format
How to Change or Correct a Father's Name in a Passport (Quick Answer)
Apply for Reissue of Passport under change in existing personal particulars. First decide which case you are in. For a misspelling, the practice is two supporting public documents carrying your father's correct name, his passport, Aadhaar, voter card, PAN or an educational certificate, and no gazette is needed. Where your father has genuinely changed his name, the proof is his own gazette notification plus his updated records; your gazette would prove nothing about him. Where he has died, his death certificate goes in with documents showing the correct name. Update your Aadhaar and PAN before applying. The reissue gives you a new booklet with a new number, and police verification generally applies.
| Your situation | What proves it | Gazette? |
|---|---|---|
| Father's name misspelt on your passport | Two public documents in his correct name | No |
| Initial expanded, or spacing wrong | Same, documents showing the full correct form | No |
| Father genuinely changed his name | His gazette notification and his updated records | Yes, his |
| Mother's surname changed after marriage or remarriage | Her marriage certificate, or her gazette | Depends on the case |
| Father has died | Death certificate with documents in his correct name | Usually no |
| Your own name is also changing | Your gazette, in the same reissue | Yes, yours |
Whose Name Actually Changed: Yours, or Your Father's?
This is the question the whole page turns on, and it is the one most guides never ask.
Your passport got his name wrong. His name never changed; a clerk mistyped it, or an initial was expanded differently. That is a correction on your file, and it is proved by documents that already carry his correct name. No affidavit of yours, no newspaper notice, no gazette.
Your father changed his own name. Then the event belongs to him. The proof is his gazette notification and his own updated records, and once he has updated his Aadhaar and PAN, those become the two public documents you carry to your appointment. A gazette in your name says nothing about his.
Why this saves money
Filing a gazette in your own name for a misspelling of his name is the commonest way people spend on this. Ask which document already carries his correct name before you spend anything.
Two Public Documents Rule for Correcting Father's Name in a Passport
Where a parent's name is being corrected or updated on a passport, the expectation is two supporting public documents carrying that parent's correct or new name. In practice these are:
- His passport
- His Aadhaar
- His voter card
- His PAN card
- An educational qualification certificate
What matters is that the name is consistent across them and matches exactly what you type into the reissue form, including spacing and initials.
If his own records disagree
If his Aadhaar and PAN show different forms of his name, fix his records first. You cannot prove a correct name to the passport office out of two documents that contradict each other. Correcting a name on PAN.
Central Gazette Process for a Father's Name Change, Step by Step
This section applies only where your father has genuinely changed his own name. It is filed in his name, by him, and every document below carries his details rather than yours. Where a passport of his own is involved, or he lives outside West Bengal, it must be the Gazette of India; an adult West Bengal resident with no passport in view can use the Kolkata Gazette Part II instead, which is faster.
Fix his exact new name
Spelling, spacing and surname order, decided once. Everything after this copies it: his affidavit, both newspapers, the proforma, then his Aadhaar and PAN, and finally the parent field on your passport.
His notarised affidavit
Sworn by your father himself on non-judicial stamp paper bought in his name, stating his old name, his new full name, his parentage and address, the reason, and that both names refer to one and the same person. He signs in the old name. Swear it close to filing, since the Department of Publication looks for an affidavit not older than about a year.
Notices in two daily newspapers
One Bengali and one English daily, published in his name, not yours. Classified text under change of name is enough; keep the complete pages with the masthead and date, and buy two or three copies of each.
Typed proforma with two witnesses
The Department of Publication's proforma, typed rather than handwritten, carrying his old and new name, signed by two witnesses who sign in his old name.
Pay Rs 1,100 on BharatKosh
The adult rate, paid online against his own reference, with the receipt going into the file. An additional charge applies per alias where the file carries one. Nobody should collect this in cash on the government's behalf.
Post the file to Delhi in his own name
His affidavit, both complete newspaper pages, the typed proforma, his identity and address proof, his photographs, the BharatKosh receipt, and a soft copy of the notification text with a certificate that it matches. Addressed to the Department of Publication, Civil Lines, Delhi 110054. The application is expected from him; agents may not file in their own name.
Download, then update his records
Published in about 30 to 45 days, downloaded free from egazette.gov.in. Check it the same day, because the corrigendum window is limited. He then updates his Aadhaar and PAN, and those updated records become the two public documents you take to your own passport appointment.
Which gazette a case needs, state or central · Booking the newspaper notices in Kolkata.
Fix Your Aadhaar and PAN Before the Passport
Your father's name appears on your own records too, and the passport office reads them. If your Aadhaar carries the misspelling, correcting only the passport leaves the mismatch in place for the next verification, whether that is a bank, an employer or a visa application.
So the order is: settle his correct name, get his own records right where they are wrong, correct your Aadhaar and PAN, then apply for the passport reissue last.
Related fixes
PAN lets you correct a father's name in the same request as your own name, on one fee. Doing both together is cheaper than two applications.
Passport Father Name Correction After Your Father Has Died
A parent's name can still be corrected after their death. The death certificate is submitted along with documents that carry his correct name, and an affidavit explaining the position where the office asks for one. Carry originals with self-attested copies.
What cannot happen is a fresh gazette in his name, because a change of name is a personal act. If his records were wrong during his lifetime and were never corrected, work with what exists: his passport, his voter card, an old service or educational record, or the entry in a school admission register.
Where records are old
Older documents are often the strongest here, because they predate the error. A school leaving certificate or an old passport can settle the point when newer records disagree.
How to Apply for Passport Reissue With a Corrected Father's Name
Run your case through the Document Advisor
Passport Seva's own tool lists the documents for your specific situation, and it overrides any list on a website, this one included.
Apply for Reissue of Passport
Change in existing personal particulars. Enter your father's name exactly as the supporting documents print it.
Pay and book a PSK or POPSK appointment
Use the fee calculator; a reissue is commonly around Rs 1,500 for a 36-page booklet. Choose the centre matching your address proof.
Attend with originals
Old passport with self-attested copies of the first, last, ECR or non-ECR and observation pages, plus the two public documents or his gazette.
Police verification, then the new booklet
A change of particulars generally attracts verification. The new passport carries a new number, and the old one is cancelled and usually returned.
Costly Mistakes in a Passport Father Name Correction
Filing a gazette in your own name for his misspelling
Your notification says nothing about your father's name. Two public documents in his correct name are what the office looks at.
Publishing newspaper notices for a plain correction
They belong to a gazette filing. A correction does not need them.
Bringing two documents that disagree with each other
They must be consistent, and match the reissue form exactly.
Correcting the passport and leaving Aadhaar wrong
The mismatch simply resurfaces at the next verification.
Assuming a father's gazette can be filed by you
A change of name is a personal act. He files it, in his own name.
Fixing his name and ignoring your own error
Every reissue costs a new number and a fresh verification. Correct everything in one application.
Father's Name in a Passport: Frequently Asked Questions
How do I correct my father's name in my passport?
Apply for Reissue of Passport under change in existing personal particulars. For a misspelling, the practice is to supply two supporting public documents that already carry your father's correct name, such as his passport, Aadhaar, voter card, PAN or an educational certificate. There is no separate correction slip; the reissue produces a new booklet with a new number.
Do I need a gazette to correct my father's name?
Not for a misspelling. This is where most guides overshoot: they send everyone to an affidavit, newspaper notices and a gazette, when the passport office will look at documents in your father's correct name. The gazette matters when your father has genuinely changed his name, and in that case it is his gazette that proves it.
My father actually changed his name. Whose gazette is needed?
His. The change belongs to him, so his notification is the proof, along with his updated documents. Your own gazette would say nothing about your father's name. This single point catches out a lot of applicants who spend money on the wrong filing.
What are the two public documents the passport office wants?
Documents issued by a public authority that carry the father's correct or new name, for example his passport, Aadhaar, voter card, PAN card or an educational qualification certificate. The requirement is that the name is consistent across them and matches exactly what you enter on the reissue form.
My father has died. Can I still correct his name?
Yes. His death certificate goes in along with documents showing his correct name, and an affidavit explaining the position. Carry originals with self-attested copies.
Can I correct my mother's name the same way?
Yes, the approach is the same for either parent: documents in her correct name for a misspelling, or her own gazette where she genuinely changed her name, for instance after marriage or remarriage.
Does my passport number change?
Yes. Any change of personal particulars is issued as a fresh booklet with a new number, and the old one is cancelled and usually returned. That is true even when the only thing wrong is one letter in a parent's name.
Should I fix my other documents first?
Yes. Aadhaar and PAN should already show your father's name correctly, because the passport office reads your supporting records. Correcting the passport alone leaves the same mismatch in place elsewhere.
Is police verification required?
A change in personal particulars generally attracts police verification, before or after issue. Keep the address on your application consistent with your Aadhaar so the check is not delayed.
How long does it take?
A reissue commonly runs about seven working days for a straightforward case and longer with verification. If a gazette is needed first, add 30 to 45 days for publication before you even apply.
What if my father's name differs across my own documents?
Decide the correct form from his own records, get that onto your Aadhaar and PAN, and then apply for the passport reissue. Fixing the passport while your other records still disagree simply moves the problem.
Do you handle this?
We prepare the gazette where one is genuinely needed, and we will tell you plainly when it is not, which is often. The passport reissue itself is filed by you on Passport Seva.
Official Sources for Passport Father Name Correction
Passport Seva
passportindia.gov.in: reissue, the Document Advisor for your exact case, and the fee calculator.
Department of Publication
deptpub.gov.in: the Gazette of India proforma, fees and document list, for a father's own name change.
Kolkata Gazette Part II guideline
Notification of 17 May 2023: the faster state route, open to adult West Bengal residents.
Passport Name Change in West Bengal: The Complete Series
The reissue itself, the gazette a passport case needs, and every situation people come with: a single name, a parent’s name, a child, an NRI abroad, marriage and divorce.
Passport Name Correction and Change
Both are a reissue: new booklet, new number, and what each case needs.
Read →Gazette Name Change for a Passport
Why a passport case takes the central gazette, and the exceptions.
Read →Add Surname to a Passport
The single-name problem, and the relaxation many people never hear about.
Read →Passport Name Change for a Minor
Annexure D, Annexure C, and the divorce exception.
Read →For an NRI From Abroad
Two portals, and police verification at your Indian address.
Read →Passport After Marriage
Marriage certificate route, and the reissue that follows.
Read →Passport After Divorce
Two changes on one reissue, with the decree as support.
Read →Father Name Correction in West Bengal: Every Document
The same field does a different job on each record, so each one asks for something different.
Father Name Correction in West Bengal
Whose gazette it is, and what each document needs.
Read →Father Name in a Voter ID
One relative field, and Form 8 is free.
Read →Father Name in a Caste Certificate
His name is the evidence the certificate rests on.
Read →Father Name in a Domicile Certificate
On one version the certificate is about him.
Read →Father Name in an OBC Certificate
It carries both halves of the certificate.
Read →Get Call and Name Change Format
Send Us His Documents. Most of These Cases Need No Gazette
Photograph your passport page and any two documents carrying your father's correct name. If that is enough, we will tell you so and you owe us nothing. If he genuinely changed his name, we prepare his gazette in his own name. Monday to Saturday, across West Bengal.