Kashmir gets a new domicile law, sets off a political firestorm: 10 facts
Eight months after the Union government scrapped Jammu and Kashmir’s special status, it has changed domicile rules for the union territory and ordered that only people who fulfill the new criteria will be eligible for junior posts in the bureaucracy and the constabulary. Before Parliament scrapped Article 370, only those considered permanent residents of the erstwhile state could get jobs in the state government. Here are 10 facts about the reworked domicile law:
1.The Centre on Wednesday issued a notification announcing a number of amendments to 138 Acts of Jammu and Kashmir that include protecting jobs up to Group-4 for only those who are domiciled in the union territory.
2. Among the laws amended is the Jammu and Kashmir Civil Services (Decentralisation and Recruitment) Act.
3. The government has inserted a clause for domicile category under which a person has to stay in the Union Territory for a period of 15 years. Children of all-India services personnel who have served there for 10 years also come under the category.
4. The tweaked law says that no person shall be eligible for appointment to a post carrying a pay scale of not more than Group-4 (Rs 25,500) unless he is a domicile of the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir. Group-4 is equivalent to the rank of constable in police parlance.
5. A total of 28 of the 138 Acts have been repealed as the Union government has laid down a procedure for being a domicile of the Union Territory, which came into existence on October 31, 2019, after the Centre scrapped Article 370 which gave special status to the erstwhile state. It was then bifurcated into two union territories of Jammu and Kashmir, and Ladakh.
6. According to the procedure, anyone who has resided for 15 years in Jammu and Kashmir or has studied for seven years and appeared in Class 10 and Class 12 examinations in an educational institution located in the Union Territory is a domicile.
7. Anyone who is registered as a migrant by the Relief and Rehabilitation Commissioner (Migrants) will also be deemed to be a domicile.
8. The others who can be deemed to be a domicile include children of those central government officials, all-India services officers, officials of public sector undertakings and autonomous bodies of the central government, public sector banks, officials of statutory bodies, central university officials and those of recognised research institutes of the central government who have served in Jammu and Kashmir for 10 years.
9. Children of those who fulfil any of the conditions or children of those residents of Jammu and Kashmir who reside outside the Union Territory in connection with their employment or business or other professional or vocational reasons but their parents fulfil any of the conditions provided in the sub-section will also be deemed to be domiciles, the notification said.
10. The domicile law would apply for recruitment to all posts that come with a basic salary of Rs 25,500
HT
