Name Change With Pending Court Case, Loan or Criminal Record in Uttarakhand

None of this replaces advice on your own matter. A bail order, a decree or a loan agreement may carry a term that bears on you. Only someone who has read it can say.

The third calls for the most care. Not since a change is forbidden, but since the consequences of doing it carelessly fall on your liberty and not on your pocket.

Step 1: Be clear with yourself why you want the change

A new name is yours to take. It is not a way out of anything that already binds you.

Step 2: List what is pending in your present name

Court cases, loans, guarantees, bail or other conditions, and police matters.

Step 3: Speak to the lawyer who is handling any case

Before you publish. Ask if any order or condition bears on a change of name, and how the court is to be told.

Step 4: Publish the change honestly

The affidavit and the notice carry both names. You take responsibility for what they say.

Step 5: Tell the court, through your lawyer

So that the record shows your present name beside the old one.

Step 6: Tell every lender and anyone you have guaranteed

Give the Gazette and updated identity papers, and have the loan account updated.

Step 7: Disclose the earlier name wherever a form asks

A passport application, a job form, a police verification form.

Step 8: Keep the Gazette with your case papers and loan papers

It is the link between the two names, for as long as either matter lasts.

• A loan is owed by you. It is not owed by your name.
• The lender's record, the mortgage or hypothecation, and the credit bureau's report all carry the old name, tied to your PAN.
• After a change, your identity papers move to the new name. The loan account should move with them.
• Give the lender the Gazette and updated Aadhaar and PAN, and ask for the account, and any security papers, to be noted.
• When the loan is repaid, the release of a mortgage or of a vehicle's loan entry is then in a name that matches your papers.
• A guarantee you gave for another person's loan binds you in the same way. Tell that lender too.

A new name does not clear a default or raise a credit score. Read name mismatch in a credit report, home loan name mismatch and name change in bank records.

• Many forms ask if you have ever been known by another name, or changed your name.
• A passport application asks this, and asks separately about criminal proceedings.
• Job applications, security clearances and visa forms ask the same in their own words.
• The question exists so that records in the two names can be found and joined.
• Answer yes, give the old name, and attach the Gazette. That is all that is needed.
• An answer of no, when the truth is yes, is a false statement on that form. It can cost the passport or the job by itself, whatever lay behind it.

Read name change in passport and visa application name mismatch.

Step 1: Fix the exact new name

The spelling that will go on Aadhaar, PAN and every later paper.

Step 2: Make the affidavit, stating the old name, the new name and the true reason

Sign before a notary. Say nothing in it that is not so.

Step 3: Publish the newspaper notice

In a daily local leading newspaper. Keep the full original page.

Step 4: Type the form and sign the undertaking

Two typed copies, signed in your old name with two witnesses. The undertaking is your responsibility for the facts.

Step 5: 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 6: Pay the charge on BharatKosh

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

Step 7: Send the file yourself

To the Controller of Publications, Department of Publication, Civil Lines, Delhi 110054.

Step 8: Update Aadhaar and PAN, then tell the court and the lenders

In that order, so that the papers you give them already agree.

See gazette name change in Uttarakhand and documents to update after a Gazette name change.

A typical case we handle: a shopkeeper in Roorkee, whose business loan had gone bad, asked us to change his name so that he could "start again" with another bank. We told him plainly that it would not work. His PAN would stay the same, the credit record would follow it, and the notice would print both names side by side. We did not take the work. He was better served by speaking to his lender about the loan itself. This is an illustrative example of the type of case we handle, not a named client review.

When we will not help

Where the purpose of a change is to mislead a court, a lender, an employer or the police. We prepare a Gazette file for a person changing a name for an honest reason, and that includes people with a case or a loan pending.

Can I change my name if I have a court case?

Usually yes. Tell your lawyer first, and then the court.

Does changing my name clear my loan?

No. The loan follows the person.

Does a name change erase a criminal record?

No. The record stays, and stays linked to you.

Do I have to disclose my old name?

Yes, wherever a form asks.

Will my CIBIL score reset after a name change?

No. It is tied to your PAN.

Is a name change public?

Yes. Both names are printed, with an address.

What is cheating by personation?

Under section 319 of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, a person cheats by personation if he cheats by pretending to be someone else, or by representing himself as a person other than he really is. A new name used to deceive can fall within it.

What is the punishment for cheating by personation?

Section 319(2) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita provides imprisonment that may extend to five years, or a fine, or both. Under the old Indian Penal Code, section 419, the term was up to three years.

What happens if I hide my old name in a passport application?

Section 12(1)(b) of the Passports Act, 1967 makes it an offence to knowingly furnish false information or suppress material information to obtain a passport. It is punishable with imprisonment up to two years, a fine up to Rs 5,000, or both.

Is the penalty higher for a repeat passport offence?

Yes. Section 12(4) of the Passports Act says a person convicted again of an offence under the Act is punishable with double the penalty provided for the later offence.

Can I get free legal aid for a pending case?

Section 12 of the Legal Services Authorities Act, 1987 lists the persons entitled to free legal services. Under NALSA's 2010 regulations an affidavit that you fall in one of those categories is ordinarily sufficient. Apply to the District Legal Services Authority or the Uttarakhand State Legal Services Authority.

What if free legal aid is obtained on false information?

NALSA's regulations say the applicant is told that legal services obtained by furnishing incorrect or false information, or fraudulently, will be stopped.