J&K: MoS PMO announces further amendments to UT's 'domicile law' to include more residents

Inspite of massive opposition to the new Jammu-Kashmir domicile laws, MoS PMO Jitendra Singh on Monday, said that the Centre will amend the domicile laws further. Citing 'ease of issuing certificates', he said that after discussing L-G Manoj Sinha and the Union territory's chief secretary, he said that the new amendments pertain to issue domicile certificates children producing PRC of any of the parents and women from outside married to PRC holder men. Most mainstream J&K parties like - NC, PDP, JKPC, JKPM, Apni Party have rejected the new domicile laws.

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MoS PMO: 'New domicile laws'

J&K govt issues 12.44 lakh domicile certificates across 20 districts within 3.5 months

18.52 domicile certificates issued

The Jammu and Kashmir government has issued over 18.52 lakh domicile certificates (DCs) against more than 21.99 lakh applications received so far. Across 20 districts of the Union territory, 20,87,815 of the 21,99,513 people applications were found complete in all respects, while the rest were rejected. As many as 18,52,355 people have been issued domicile certificates till last week. Parliament recently passed the Jammu and Kashmir Official Languages Bill, under which Kashmiri, Dogri, and Hindi, apart from the existing Urdu and English have been included as J&K's official languages.

As per the UT's order's any person fulfilling the criteria as per the new law was allowed to apply for the domicile certificate online or in person, with appropriate documents. Any applicant's domicile application must be approved or rejected with 15 days. The order states that if the applicant is neither approved or rejected within 15 days, he can approach the Appellate authority. Once the applicant succeeds in his appeal, the Appellate Authority will direct authorities to issue a domicile certificate within 7 days. If any authority fails to comply within the stipulated time, the appellate will recover Rs. 50000 from the authority's salary, states the order.

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Centre issues new domicile law for J&K

On April 4, the Centre issued a gazette notification defining the domicile of the newly bifurcated Union Territory of Jammu & Kashmir. It states that a domicile of J&K is one 'who has resided for 15 years in J&K, or has studied for 7 years and appeared in Class 10/12 exam in J&K, or is registered as migrant by the Relief and Rehabilitation Commissioner.' The order also includes 'children of government employees who have served in Jammu and Kashmir for a total period of ten years or children of parents who fulfil any of the conditions in sections'. The Centre had abrogated Article 370 & Article 35 A which defined the permanent residents of the erstwhile state of Jammu and Kashmir.

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