22.7.21

Non-Kashmiris married to local women can get J&K domicile

The J&K administration has tweaked its domicile rules to enable spouses of native women married outside the Union Territory to apply for and get permanent residency. Until the J&K Grant of Domicile Certificate (Procedure) Rules 2020 were amended, the term “spouse” was applicable in this context only to non-Kashmiri wives of native men.

According to the order issued by commissioner and secretary of general administration Manoj Dwivedi, any outsider married to a native will be eligible to seek a domicile certificate on the basis of the husband or wife’s domicile status. Native women married to non-Kashmiris could so far get only their children to apply for domicile certificates.

The documents required for the issuance of a domicile certificate to either non-native spouse include the partner’s papers and a valid proof of marriage. The designated authority for issuance of a certificate is the tehsildar.

Till Articles 370 and 35A were nullified, there was no provision for issuance of permanent resident certificates to husbands of native women married outside J&K. J&K BJP president Ravinder Raina termed the change “a historic decision to end the injustice meted out to the girls of J&K by previous governments”

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