“Enter the surname and given names as per the new names you would like to appear on your passport”. This is the instruction that appears on the website when you are filing for a new passport. The statement clearly states that the name appearing on the passport is of your choice. If women choose to get their maiden name changed after marriage, they just need to show their marriage certificate and file an affidavit for the same. But only if they want to get it changed! It’s choice.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday said that there will be no need for a woman to change her name on the passport after marriage or divorce and that she could get the travel document by giving the names of either of her parents.
Reality check! This is already how it happens
“There has been an important change in passport rules. Now, it will not be necessary for a woman to give the certificate of her marriage or divorce. It will be up to her to have either the name of her father or mother on the passport,” Modi said on Thursday.
Soon after Modi made the statement, several people came out on social media suggesting that years after their marriage they have never felt the need to change their names.
Indian Passport Rules, 1980. "IF there is no change in the name at all, kindly write 'not applicable'. Now who will take credit for that? pic.twitter.com/pu8TPSmVpE
— SamSays (@samjawed65) April 13, 2017
No. Not Mr. Modi ! I am the only one who has told my wife that she can keep her maiden name in her passport.she has kept that frm beginning_
— RAKESH MOHAPATRA (@rakacts) April 14, 2017
#Modi #claims : wondering if #married #women were ever asked to change #surname for #passport? Many i knw never changed, used same passport
— Devika Mittal (@devikasmittal) April 14, 2017
Women coluld always keep maiden name on passport new or renewing. #modi #alternativefacts #pretendliberal
— Nicole Lobo (@Nicfactor) April 14, 2017
The instructions booklet of the passport application form on the Passport Seva website says: “This will be applicable to an applicant who has even marginally changed the name or a female who has changed her name or surname after marriage”. This means that if a woman kept her maiden name, nothing changes in the passport application process.
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