Quick answer: Apply to the District Magistrate for a certificate of identity under the Transgender Persons (Protection of Rights) Act, 2019, using the form prescribed by the 2020 Rules and a notarised affidavit of self-declaration. The application can be made through the national portal at transgender.dosje.gov.in. Surgery is not required for that certificate. Once issued, it carries an entitlement to change the first name in the birth certificate and other official documents. The gazette is not needed for this.
Anyone selling you a gazette for this has not read the law, and it will cost you more and take longer.
At a Glance
| The law | Act 40 of 2019, in force from January 2020 |
| The rules | Notified in 2020, with prescribed forms |
| Who decides | The District Magistrate |
| Screening committee | None; self-identification |
| Surgery required | No, not for the certificate of identity |
| What the certificate carries | The right to change the first name on documents |
| Where to apply | transgender.dosje.gov.in, or locally |
| Gazette needed | No |
Key Takeaways
- There is a statutory route, and it is not the gazette.
- The application goes to the District Magistrate.
- Self-declaration, with no screening committee.
- Surgery is not a condition of the first certificate.
- The certificate itself opens the document updates.
What You Need: Quick Facts
| The prescribed application form | Under the 2020 Rules |
| A notarised affidavit | Of self-declaration |
| Identity and address proof | As currently held |
| Photograph | For the certificate |
| Existing documents | To be updated afterwards |
| Medical certificate | Only for a revised certificate after surgery |
| An acknowledgment | As with any application |
| Copies of the certificate | Several, once issued |
Table of Contents
- A separate route, written into law
- How the application works
- What is not required
- What the certificate lets you do
- For everybody else in Deoria
- What is local in Deoria
- Central Gazette: the complete process and file format
- Areas we serve
- Key terms
- Related guides
- Why choose our office
- FAQs
A Separate Route, Written Into Law
Both routes exist and neither cancels the other, but for this purpose the statutory route is the one the law actually built.
How the Application Works
Use the prescribed form
The Rules notified in 2020 set out the forms, and the national portal at transgender.dosje.gov.in accepts applications online.
Attach a notarised affidavit of self-declaration
In the form the Rules prescribe, on non-judicial stamp paper of the modest value they specify, sworn before a notary.
Attach identity and address proof, and a photograph
Whatever documents you currently hold, in whatever name they currently carry.
Submit and take an acknowledgment
Online the portal records it; if applying locally, ask for one exactly as you would for any application.
The District Magistrate issues the certificate
Within the time the Rules prescribe. A refusal must give reasons and can be carried further.
Then take several copies and begin the updates
Birth certificate, Aadhaar, PAN, marksheets, bank and the rest, each with a copy attached.
Once the certificate exists, the rest is the ordinary document round that any name change involves, and the guides for each of those apply here unchanged.
What Is Not Required
| Sometimes demanded | The position under the Act |
|---|---|
| Surgery, before the certificate | Not required for the certificate of identity |
| A district screening committee | Not part of the 2019 Act |
| A gazette notification | Not the route the Act provides |
| Newspaper publication | Not part of this process |
| A court order | Not required for this route |
The escalation ladder, which applies here as anywhere, is on our Raebareli page.
What the Certificate Lets You Do
- Change the first name in the birth certificate, which is the entitlement the Act states expressly.
- Update other official documents accordingly, including Aadhaar, PAN and educational records.
- Have the gender recorded in official documents in accordance with the certificate.
- Apply for a revised certificate later, if you undergo surgery and choose to, with a certificate from the Medical Superintendent or Chief Medical Officer.
- Keep both certificates permanently, since offices ask for the original document that authorises a change.
One caution worth stating plainly: an amendment bill relating to this Act is currently before Parliament, so the position may change. Check the portal or the current Rules before you file, rather than relying on any page written earlier.
For Everybody Else in Deoria
- The ordinary route applies unchanged, which is affidavit, two newspaper notices and the Central Gazette, set out in full below.
- Board corrections go through your own school and then the DIOS, as everywhere in the state.
- Births are registered by the municipal bodies and gram panchayats of the district, and the certificate names its issuer.
- Land and revenue work belongs to your tehsil, not the district headquarters.
- The district is in the Gorakhpur division, so anything above district level goes that way.
Which six things are local in any UP district is set out on our districts page.
Central Gazette: the Complete Process and File Format
This is the ordinary route, for anybody whose situation is not covered by the statutory route above.
Stage 1: The affidavit
Note the difference in character between this and the affidavit used for the statutory route. This one declares a change from one name to another. That one is a self-declaration of identity in the form the Rules prescribe. They are not interchangeable, and using the wrong one is a common reason for an application to come back.
Stage 2: The Public Notice, in two copies
Each witness gives signature, full name and address, and both sign both copies.
Stage 3: The CD and CD-Certificate
Stage 4: Newspapers, fee, covering letter and dispatch
Publish in two newspapers and buy six copies
A Hindi daily and an English paper covering this district, complete original pages.
Pay Rs 1,100 on BharatKosh
Online, with two receipts printed.
Write the covering letter
To The Controller, Publication Department, Civil Line, Delhi 110054, with your mobile number and email.
Assemble, check and photocopy
A full copy set kept at home, because the file sent is never returned.
Courier it, tracked
A day or two from here to Delhi.
Then Aadhaar, and outwards from there
Everything else compares against it.
Settle the Route Before You Spend
Fees and Time, Both Routes
| Statutory certificate | Affidavit and stamp paper of modest value |
| Where it is decided | The District Magistrate, in the district |
| Newspapers for that route | None |
| Adult gazette fee | Rs 1,100 |
| Newspapers for the gazette | A few hundred rupees per paper |
| Gazette timeline | Roughly 25 to 45 days |
| Our service | Basic from Rs 999, Complete from Rs 1,999, quoted separately |
For the gazette route the envelope is: covering letter with your phone and email, affidavit (notarised), Public Notice typed in two copies with two witnesses on each, CD in MS-Word format with the signed CD-Certificate, both complete newspaper pages, photo identity proof, address proof, photographs and the BharatKosh receipt.
Before You Start: Check These
- Which of the two routes applies to your situation?
- Are you about to pay for a gazette you do not need?
- Have you checked the current position on the portal?
- Do you have an acknowledgment for whatever you submit?
After the Certificate or the Gazette: What Updates Next
Birth certificate, Aadhaar, PAN, bank and educational records, in that order, each with a copy of the authorising document attached. Keep the original permanently, because every later office will ask what authorised the change.
What Other Websites Get Wrong
- Wrong: a gazette is needed for every name change. Right: the 2019 Act provides a separate route through the District Magistrate.
- Wrong: surgery must come first. Right: that relates to the revised certificate under section 7, not the certificate of identity.
- Wrong: a screening committee decides. Right: that was in earlier drafts and is not in the Act that was passed.
- Wrong: do both routes to be safe. Right: that is money spent twice for one outcome.
- Wrong: any old affidavit will do. Right: the Rules prescribe a form, and the wrong one comes back.
Areas We Serve in Uttar Pradesh
Deoria and the Gorakhpur division, and the rest of the state. Most often these:
| Western UP and NCR | Noida, Greater Noida, Ghaziabad, Meerut, Agra, Aligarh, Mathura, Bulandshahr, Muzaffarnagar, Saharanpur, Hapur, Firozabad |
| Rohilkhand and Bundelkhand | Bareilly, Moradabad, Rampur, Shahjahanpur, Budaun, Pilibhit, Bijnor, Amroha, Jhansi, Banda, Mahoba, Chitrakoot |
| Awadh and central UP | Lucknow, Kanpur, Unnao, Raebareli, Sitapur, Hardoi, Barabanki, Lakhimpur Kheri, Sultanpur, Ayodhya, Amethi, Bahraich |
| Purvanchal and eastern UP | Varanasi, Prayagraj, Gorakhpur, Azamgarh, Jaunpur, Ballia, Deoria, Mirzapur, Basti, Ghazipur, Mau, Sonbhadra |
Within the district we work with families across Deoria, Barhaj, Salempur, Rudrapur, Bhatpar Rani and Gauri Bazar, and both routes described here are available in every district we serve. Papers reach us by photograph and courier. Our chamber is at Chamber No. 19, Sadar Tehsil, Sector 5, Gomti Nagar Vistar, Lucknow 226010, and the wider picture is on our districts page. Call 9540003316 or WhatsApp 9540005002.
Key Terms on This Page
Plain definitions for the words that come up at the counter:
- Affidavit
- A statement you swear is true, signed before a notary on stamp paper. The notary confirms you signed it, not that the contents are true.
- Notary Public
- An officer who attests that a document was signed in front of them. They verify the signature, not the facts written above it.
- Department of Publication
- The office at Civil Line, Delhi that receives name change files and publishes the notification.
- Name correction
- Fixing a name that was written wrongly by somebody else. Lighter than a change, because an older document already shows the right version.
- Name change
- Adopting a different name from the one your documents correctly record. This is the case that usually needs publication.
- DIOS
- The District Inspector of Schools, the officer a board correction is escalated to when a school will not forward it.
Related Guides on This Site
Whichever counter you reach next, there is a guide for it here:
- the gazette guide: the ordinary route in full.
- birth certificate: the first document to update afterwards.
- Aadhaar name change: and the limits on updates.
- PAN name change: after Aadhaar.
- UP Board correction: through your own school.
- name change in Raebareli: what to do if an office refuses.
- name change in Gorakhpur: this district s divisional headquarters.
- what it costs: government fee and service fee, separately.
- documents required: the ordinary checklist.
- forty questions answered: ordered by how much the answer changes.
- contact the office: phone and WhatsApp.
Why We Will Tell You Not to Buy the Gazette
Our ordinary work is the gazette, and it is what most people who contact us need. But where somebody is entitled to the statutory certificate under the 2019 Act, the gazette adds nothing, and we say so even though the statutory route is much smaller work for us. We have met people who paid for a gazette and then discovered the certificate was what they actually needed, and nobody had told them because nobody selling the first had any reason to. What we do instead is prepare the prescribed affidavit and the application properly, in the right form, and point out that an amendment to this Act is currently before Parliament so the position should be checked before filing. Vipin Chauhan, B.Tech LL.B, sends people down the cheaper route when it is the right one.
- We settle which route applies first: before anybody spends.
- We say when the gazette adds nothing: even though it is our main work.
- We prepare the prescribed affidavit: in the form the Rules require.
- We flag that the law is being amended: so the current position is checked.
Associate office at Chamber No. 19, Sadar Tehsil, Sector 5, Gomti Nagar Vistar, Lucknow 226010, serving all 75 districts of Uttar Pradesh including Deoria, Monday to Saturday, 10 AM to 6:30 PM. Call 9540003316 or WhatsApp 9540005002.
Tell Us Which Documents Need Changing
Uttar Pradesh Name Change
Associate Office: Chamber No. 19, Sadar Tehsil, Sector 5, Gomti Nagar Vistar, Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh 226010
Head Office: Metro Pillar 337, Hardev Nagar, Street 1, Shop No 1 (Shri Sham Documentation)
Call: 9540003316
WhatsApp: 9540005002
Email: info@uttarpradeshnamechange.com
Hours: Mon to Sat, 10 AM to 6:30 PM
Tell us which documents need changing and we will say which route applies. If it is the statutory one, we will say so, and the gazette does not come into it.
Get Call and Name Change Format
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Name Change in Deoria: FAQs
Is a gazette needed for a transgender name change?
No. The Transgender Persons (Protection of Rights) Act, 2019 provides a separate route through the District Magistrate.
Where does the application go?
To the District Magistrate, in the form the 2020 Rules prescribe. It can be made through the national portal at transgender.dosje.gov.in.
Is surgery required?
Not for the certificate of identity. Surgery relates to a revised certificate under section 7, which is a separate and optional step.
Is there a screening committee?
No. That appeared in earlier drafts and is not in the Act that was passed. The Act works on self-identification.
What does the certificate allow?
It carries an entitlement to change the first name in the birth certificate and other official documents, and the gender to be recorded accordingly.
What if an office asks for a medical report first?
Point out that this relates to the revised certificate under section 7, not the certificate under section 6. Ask in writing and keep the reply.
What should I do after the certificate is issued?
Take several copies, then birth certificate, Aadhaar, PAN, bank and educational records in that order.
Can I use an ordinary name change affidavit?
No. The Rules prescribe a form of self-declaration, and the ordinary change of name affidavit is a different document.
Is the law changing?
An amendment bill relating to this Act is currently before Parliament, so check the portal or the current Rules before filing.
What if my situation is not covered by this route?
Then the ordinary route applies: affidavit, two newspaper notices and the Central Gazette, set out above.
Which division is Deoria in?
Gorakhpur, so anything above district level goes that way.
Where are births registered here?
By the district s municipal bodies and gram panchayats, and the certificate names its issuer.
Official Sources
- The Transgender Persons (Protection of Rights) Act, 2019 at indiacode.nic.in, and the Rules notified in 2020.
- The national portal at transgender.dosje.gov.in, which accepts applications and shows the current forms.
- District Deoria at deoria.nic.in, for the District Magistrate s office and local services.
- Department of Publication, Civil Line, Delhi 110054, for Central Gazette notification on the ordinary route.
This page describes documentation and states the position under the Act and Rules as published. An amendment bill is currently before Parliament, so verify the current requirement on the portal before filing. We prepare documentation and do not provide legal advice or conduct litigation.
The Short Version
The ordinary route to a new name runs affidavit, two newspapers and the Central Gazette, costing about Rs 1,100 in government fees and taking roughly a month with a file couriered to Delhi. For a transgender applicant Parliament provided a different one. Under the Transgender Persons (Protection of Rights) Act, 2019, in force since January 2020, you apply to the District Magistrate under section 5, the District Magistrate issues a certificate of identity under section 6, and section 7(3) states that the holder of that certificate is entitled to change the first name in the birth certificate and other official documents. So the certificate does the work the gazette does for everybody else, and it is a district process rather than a Delhi one. Surgery is not required for it, that relates to a revised certificate under section 7, and the screening committee people still mention was in earlier drafts and is not in the Act that passed. An amendment bill is currently before Parliament, so check the portal before filing.