The Jammu and Kashmir administration has finally removed the last bottleneck for the issuance of domicile certificates to spouses of Kashmiri women/men married outside the Union Territory. So far, children of such women were entitled to receive domicile certificates. 

Ever since the UT administration started preparing domicile certificates after the abrogation of Article 370 in August 2019, women married outside the erstwhile State of  Jammu and Kashmir were facing piquant situations.

Initially, their children were included in the list and now, the UT administration has included spouses in the list of beneficiaries.

According to a notification issued by the General Administration department on Tuesday, “In exercise of the powers conferred by the proviso to Article 309 of the Constitution of India, read 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 Grant of Domicile Certificate Rules 220, after S.No/Clause 6, the following shall be added”.

The spouse of a domicile certificate holder can get the certificate upon submission of certain documents, as a new clause has been added under the J&K Grant of Domicile Certificate (Procedure) Rules, 2020. The power to grant the category of domicile to the spouse of domicile has been conferred with the tehsildar.

The spouse is eligible to get a certificate upon showing - 1) Domicile certificate of his/her spouse and 2) valid marriage proof.

The order modified the applicability of Domicile conditions to all levels of jobs in the Union Territory of Jammu & Kashmir under the Jammu & Kashmir Civil Services (Decentralisation and Recruitment) Act.

Earlier, the J&K Government had barred the issuance of Permanent Resident Certificates (PRCs)  to the husbands of all PRC women married outside J&K. In contrast to this, a PRC man married outside could confer PRC on his wife.