Now spouse of native woman, married outside, to get domicile certificate

Ground Report | New Delhi: Now spouse of native woman; In an important decision, the Jammu and Kashmir administration has announced the issuance of domicile certificates to the wives of permanent residents of Jammu and those who marry outside the Union Territory, while earlier making those married outside Jammu and Kashmir their spouses. Ineligible for domicile certificate.

Now spouse of native woman to get domicile

In the absence of any specific clause for the spouse of a permanent resident, the issuing authority was unable to grant domicile and prescribed a limit of 15 years for obtaining the certificate.

However, in 2020 the Union Cabinet had approved the Jammu and Kashmir (Adaptation of State Laws) Second Order, 2020 issued under Section 96 of the Jammu and Kashmir Reorganization Act, 2019.

Now the spouse of a domicile certificate holder can obtain the certificate on submission of certain documents, as a new clause has been added under the Jammu and Kashmir Grant of Domicile Certificate (Procedure) Rules, 2020.

Manoj Kumar Dwivedi Commissioner/Secretary to Government, General Administration Department, Jammu, and Kashmir also confirmed to news agency- Kashmir News Observer (KNO) that the new clause in the JK Domicile Rule is for a spouse and not gender-specific, whose Meaning that if a male member of Jammu and Kashmir marries in Rajasthan or Gujarat, his wife will get all the rights like a girl from Jammu and Kashmir.

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"Similarly, if a girl from Jammu and Kashmir chooses a Maharashtrian as her life partner, she will enjoy all the rights in Jammu and Kashmir." The power to confer the category of domicile to the spouse of the domicile has been delegated to the Tehsildar.

The spouse is eligible to get the certificate showing his/her spouse's residence certificate and valid marriage proof. The order modified the applicability of domicile conditions under the Jammu and Kashmir Civil Services (Decentralization and Recruitment) Act to all levels of jobs in the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir.

"In exercise of the powers conferred by the provision of article 309 of the Constitution of India, with section 15 of the Jammu and Kashmir Civil Services Act 2010, the Government hereby directs in sub-rule (1) of rule 5 of the Jammu and Kashmir. Kashmir Grant of Domicile Certificate Rules 220, serial no./after clause 6, the following shall be added,” the order reads.

This is the first time that Jammu and Kashmir have become a part of the Union of India that its men and women will stand on equal footing in all fields. PRC rules were vaguely framed and deliberately interpreted to allow PRC women to have significantly fewer rights than their male counterparts.

It also needs to be mentioned here that the fight for equality between the two sexes in Jammu and Kashmir gained a major impetus on October 7, 2002, when a full bench of the Jammu and Kashmir High Court headed by Chief Justice VK Jhanji, headed by Dr. . The case of Sushila Sawhney Vs State of Jammu and Kashmir. The bench had said that after her marriage outside J&K, a female PRC continued to be a PRC.

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This was a very important decision as earlier the PRCs of girls in Jammu and Kashmir were stamped with "valid until marriage" and thereafter no such stamp was put on the PRCs issued to male PRCs.

BJP welcome decision

Meanwhile, the Bharatiya Janata Party Jammu and Kashmir unit has appreciated the decision of the UT government to issue a domicile certificate to the spouse of a native woman, who is a domicile holder in the UT.

Addressing a press conference in Jammu today, J&K BJP President Ravinder Raina termed it a historic decision and end of the injustice meted to the girls of J&K at the hands of previous governments who were married outside the erstwhile state.

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