Update mother's name on child's birth certificate
Swapnil Bhandarkar
(Querist) 28 November 2023
This query is : Resolved
My wife and I have been married for 10+ years, and she has not changed her name after marriage. Her Aadhaar, PAN, Passport etc all contains her maiden name before marriage.
Our son was born in Dec-2021 in Bhandara, Maharashtra. Somehow on the hospital records, my wife's name was mentioned as after marriage. Therefore on my son's birth certificate, the mother's name contains my wife's name after marriage.
Last month I went for my kids passport application. For kids they need both mother and father's passport to verify. My wife's passport contains her maiden full name before marriage. But the kids birth certificate, wife's name is showing he name after marriage. As the documents are not matching, the officer put the passports on hold and asked us to do one of the following two corrections:
1. Correct the son's birth certificate so that mother's name (my wife's name) will be as per her documents (that is, before marriage name).
2. Change my wife's documents (Passport, Aadhaar etc) so that it reflects her after marriage name.
My wife is not keen to change her name, hence we wanted to update the birth certificate of my son to reflect my wife's before marriage name.
Now here is the issue that is happening. The person responsible in the municipal office has refused to entertain our request, saying birth certificate correction can happen only within a few weeks of the issue of the certificate. They cannot update it now. He suggested to hire an advocate and get a court order, and only via a court order they will be able to update the birth certificate.
So we went to an advocate, but his response is that you do not need a court order because birth certificate cannot be updated anymore. Instead he suggested to make an affidavit mentioning wife's before and after marriage name, and use that in the passport office.
I am not sure what is the correct way to follow now. Can anyone help?
kavksatyanarayana
(Expert) 28 November 2023
Is your marriage not registered? You ask your wife to change her name after marriage(with the husband's surname) for the purpose of the child's birth certificate. You can change your wife's name in the Aadhar and Pan after marriage. You and your wife shall give a notarized affidavit stating the name of your wife after marriage is xxxxxx xxxxxx and before marriage is xxxxx xxxxx.
T. Kalaiselvan, Advocate
(Expert) 29 November 2023
The advocate you consulted has advised you properly.
Your child's birth certificate cannot be corrected at this stage.
Instead you have to follow the change of name process of your wife and get her name as how it appears in all her personal documents after which the copy of the affidavit and the government gazette publication effecting the name change can be attached to the passport reissue application on order to get the name of yor child rectified accordingly.
Sudhir Kumar, Advocate
(Expert) 29 November 2023
agreed. Both ways are workable. The path suggested by Mr Kavksatyanarayana appears less cumbersome.
