Nearly ten months after the abrogation of Article 370 and 35 A, as the J&K administration began issuing domicile certificates to permanent and those non-permanent residents who have lived in the region for at least 15 years as per the new domicile law, over 25000 people have been granted domicile certificates and a J&K cadre IAS officer has become the first civil servant to get a certificate to be the resident of J&K.

 

 

Navin Kumar Choudhary, a senior J&K cadre IAS officer from Bihar, is among the 25,000 people who have been granted domicile certificates that allow non-locals to get a residency certificate for education, employment, and buying land in the Union Territory. He became the first IAS officer who has been granted the domicile certificate to be the resident of Jammu & Kashmir.

 

 

The domicile certificate issued by Tehsildar of the Jammu’s Bahu area Rohit Sharma said that Navin K. Choudhary, son of Shri Deokant Choudhary, resident of at present Gandhi Nagar, Jammu is a domicile of UT of J&K.

 

 

The certificate issued by the Government which has photograph, Aadhar Card of Choudhary said that the applicant is eligible in terms of the following clause of Rule 5 of the Jammu and Kashmir Grant Domicile Certificate (Production) Rules, 2020.

 

 

According to J&K Grant Domicile Certificate (Production) Rules, those living in Jammu and Kashmir for more than 15 years can apply for the certificate. So far, domicile certificates have been issued in favour of 25,000 people while the number of applications received is around 33,157.

 

 

Among thousands who have been granted domicile certificate as per new law, one is a boy whose mother even though belonged to Jammu and Kashmir was denied of all her basic rights as she married an outsider, however, today, the native’s kin got granted domicile certificate making him eligible to enjoy benefits of a resident of the Union Territory of J&K.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Speaking of Kashmir valley, the highest number of domicile certificates have been issued in Pulwama (153), followed by Anantnag (106), Kulgam (90), Baramulla (39), Shopian (20), Bandipora (10), Kupwara (10), Budgam (09), Ganderbal (1) and Srinagar (0).

 

 

In Jammu, the highest number of domicile certificates that is 8,500 have been issued in Doda, Rajouri 6,214, Poonch 6,123 and Jammu 2,820. Nearly 414 domicile certificates are under process in Jammu.

 

 

As per the officials, hundreds of West Pakistan Refugees and Valmiki Samaj members, who were invited to Jammu in 1957 when local sanitation workers went on strike, have been granted certificates.

 

 

The administration has directed all locals to produce their Aadhaar numbers and PRCs to receive the certificate online. Meanwhile, if a tehsildar fails to issue a domicile certificate to applicants timely, he may attract a punishment of having to forfeit up to Rs 50,000 from their salary.

 

 

The government notifying the Jammu and Kashmir Grant of Domicile Certificate (Procedure) Rules, 2020, on May 18 allowed different categories of non-locals, including non-local government employees, to register for domicile certificates.

 

 

Prior to the abrogation of Article 370 and 35A on Aug 5 2019, people from other states were not entitled to get Permanent Resident Certificates (PRCs) due to the state subject laws, a by-product of Article 35A forcing many communities in J&K to face injustice and discrimination.