Our misgivings about new domicile rules coming to fore: Omar Abdullah

Dinesh Manhotra
Tribune News Service
Jammu, June 26

As the administration of the Union Territory (UT) of J&K has issued ‘domicile certificate’ to an Indian Administrative Service (IAS) officer, former Chief Minister Omar Abdullah reacted strongly on this action of the J-K Government.

“All our misgivings about the new domicile rules in J&K are coming to the fore. We in @JKNC_ opposed the changes because we could see the nefarious design behind the changes. The people of J&K on both sides of the Pir Panjal mountains will be the sufferers of these domicile rules,” Omar tweeted.

Navin K Choudhary, a senior IAS officer of J&K, was granted a domicile certificate on Friday and became the first among the bureaucrats from outside to get the domicile certificate in Jammu and Kashmir.

All our misgivings about the new domicile rules in J&K are coming to the fore. We in @JKNC_ opposed the changes because we could see the nefarious design behind the changes. The people of J&K on both sides of the Pir Panjal mountains will be the sufferers of these domicile rules.

— Omar Abdullah (@OmarAbdullah) June 26, 2020

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

Choudhary—an IAS officer of the J&K cadre, 1994 batch—belongs to Bihar.

After the abrogation of Article 370 on August 5, 2019, the Permanent Resident Certificates (PRCs) law was abolished and replaced by the new domicile law.

Under the new law introduced in J&K on April 1, 2020, the domiciles have been defined as those who have resided for a period of15 years in the UT of J-K or have studied for a period of seven years and appeared in Class 10-12 examination in educational institutions located in J&K.

The domiciles also include children of those Central government officials, all India services officers, officials of public sector undertaking and autonomous body of the Central government, public sector banks, officials of statutory bodies, officials of central universities and recognised research institutes of the Central government who have served in J&K for a total period of ten years. The law has empowered Tehsildars within their territorial jurisdiction to issue domicile certificates.

The government of J&K UT has also been empowered to notify any other officer to be the competent authority for the issuance of a domicile certificate.