Aadhaar C/O Name Update in Uttarakhand: Father's or Husband's Name on Aadhaar

From the identity authority's published answers and its enrolment and update forms.

So the authority does not check who the named person is, and does not certify that he is your father or husband. That one fact explains everything else on this page.

The third is where confusion costs most. A woman who only wants her husband's name to appear need not touch her own name, or spend one of her two name updates.

Step 1: Look at the address on your Aadhaar

The first line may begin C/O, or on an older card S/O, D/O or W/O, followed by a name.

Step 2: Decide what you want there

A father's name, a husband's name, another person's, a corrected spelling, or nothing at all.

Step 3: Check that person's name on his or her own Aadhaar

Use that spelling. Offices will lay the two cards side by side.

Step 4: Ask for an address update, with the care-of line as you want it

At an Aadhaar centre, or through the online address facility where it serves.

Step 5: Give what is asked for the address itself

The care-of line needs no supporting document. The address may.

Step 6: Read the screen or the preview before confirming

The care-of name, in both scripts, and the rest of the address.

Step 7: Download the updated Aadhaar when the request is done

And check the line once more.

Step 8: Where an office wants proof of the relationship, give the right paper

A birth certificate or a marriage certificate. The care-of line is not that proof.

• The authority says it does not collect relationship details.
• It asks for no document for the care-of name, and so checks nothing about it.
• A name there shows only that someone asked for it to be written.
• Yet banks, schools and offices often ask for Aadhaar "to verify the father's name".
• Where they do, and the line agrees with your other papers, there is no harm.
• Where it disagrees, or is blank, offer the birth certificate, the class 10 certificate or the marriage certificate. Those are the papers that record a relationship.

Read father’s name change and correction, mother’s name and a single mother’s child and the father’s name.

• Earlier Aadhaar letters and an earlier update form used S/O, D/O, W/O and H/O as well as C/O.
• The present forms have a single care-of line.
• A card that says W/O is still your Aadhaar. It has not lapsed.
• When you next update the address, the line will appear in the present form.
• A card that says D/O after marriage is not wrong, and need not be changed for that reason alone.
• Change it when you are updating the address in any case, or when an office's question makes it worth the visit.

We could not find a published statement of when the older prefixes were dropped. The forms we read carry only care of.

Step 1: Confirm whose name is in fact changing

The care-of line is corrected at Aadhaar. A Gazette is for a person whose own name has changed.

Step 2: If it is your father's or husband's name that changed, the Gazette is his

He applies for it. You then use his new name in your care-of line.

Step 3: If it is your own name, fix the exact spelling

As it will stand on Aadhaar, PAN and a passport.

Step 4: Make the affidavit and publish the newspaper notice

Sign before a notary. Publish in a daily local leading newspaper, and keep the original newspaper.

Step 5: Type the form and sign the undertaking

Two typed copies of the specimen, signed in your old name with two witnesses, and the undertaking.

Step 6: Prepare the CD, photographs and certificate

The same text on a CD in MS Word, two self-attested photographs with identity proof, and a certificate that both copies match.

Step 7: Pay the charge on BharatKosh

Commonly Rs 1,100 for an adult. It is not refunded.

Step 8: Send the file yourself, then update the name on Aadhaar

Send it to the Controller of Publications, Department of Publication, Civil Lines, Delhi 110054. The care-of line can be set at the same visit.

See gazette name change in Uttarakhand.

A typical case we handle: a woman in Rudrapur, recently married, was told by a relative that she needed a Gazette to "put her husband's name on her Aadhaar". She wrote to ask what it would cost. We asked what she wanted changed. Her own name was to stay as it was. She wanted his name and their new address to appear. That is an address update, with no Gazette and no affidavit. She did it at an Aadhaar centre, and paid us nothing. This is an illustrative example of the type of case we handle, not a named client review.

When you do not need us

For anything to do with the care-of line. An address update settles it. We are useful only where a person's own name has changed and a Gazette notification is needed.

How do I change my father's name in Aadhaar?

By an address update. It is the C/O line.

How do I add my husband's name in Aadhaar after marriage?

By an address update, in the C/O line.

Is a document needed to change C/O in Aadhaar?

No supporting document is required for it.

Is the C/O name compulsory in Aadhaar?

No. It is optional.

Is a gazette needed for an Aadhaar C/O name update?

No.

Is Aadhaar proof of my father's name?

No. Use a birth certificate.

Can a married woman move her Aadhaar address to her husband's address without documents in her own name?

Yes. Since January 2023 UIDAI has offered a Head of Family based online address update: she uploads a proof of relationship, such as a marriage certificate, ration card, mark sheet or passport naming both, and the head of family approves by OTP.

Who can be the head of family for this?

Reports of UIDAI's facility say any resident above 18 can act as head of family and share his or her address with relatives updating their Aadhaar.

What if there is no relationship document?

UIDAI allows a self-declaration by the head of family in its prescribed format in place of a proof of relationship.

How long does the head of family have to approve?

Reports say the head of family must approve the request on myAadhaar within 30 days of the notification. If not approved in that time, the request is closed.

What does a Head of Family address update cost?

At launch UIDAI gave a fee of Rs 50, not refunded if the request is closed or rejected. Its present fee chart gives Rs 75 for a demographic update, so check the fee shown on the portal.

Is Aadhaar proof of date of birth either?

No. UIDAI's circular 08 of 2023 says Aadhaar can establish identity but is not, by itself, proof of date of birth. Read our page on the Aadhaar date of birth limit.