80-year-old woman approaches Delhi HC to publish changed name in Gazette

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An 80-year-old woman has approached the Delhi High Court to get her changed name published in the Official Gazette of India.

The petitioner, a widow, said that due to the non-availability of a photo identity card she is unable to use her own saving and investments.

Justice V Kameswar Rao directed the petitioner to file an affidavit and certificate issued earlier by the authorities. The Court has fixed the matter for further hearing on 12 April.

Prabha Sood, a resident of Hoshiarpur, Punjab, moved the petition through Advocate Jai Prakash Tahalani. She claimed that she had changed her name in 2002.

The counsel for the petitioner submitted that the petitioner is an old woman of 80 years of age. She was born in 1941 and married Ram Prakash Sood in 1963. Her husband died in 2009. She has no photo identity proof and bank officials are asking for it for the purpose of the bank account.

The petitioner said that in 1999 she had opened bank accounts and invested in equity shares and mutual funds in her former name – Shashi Sood.

The petition said that those bank accounts and investments were made by her before 2000. At the time KYC based documents like election cards, pan cards, etc were not invariably required and thus those investment and bank accounts were opened in the absence of such documents.

The petitioner said that she was issued a Legal heir certificate by Deputy Commissioner, Hoshiyarpur in 2012.

She had submitted an application, registered with the Department of Publication, Delhi in a prescribed format attaching all the necessary documents to publish that she had changed her name from Shashi Prabha Sood, Shashi and Shashi Sood to Prabha Sood.

The petition said that the department after raising certain objections had refused to publish her changed name in the official gazette of India.