Centre amends J&K domicile law

All govt jobs kept open to local residents, new entrants only

Following widespread criticism by political parties and public outcry, the Centre on late Friday night amended the recently notified domicile law for Jammu & Kashmir, reserving all government jobs for its residents.

However, some political parties continue to be dissatisfied and even enraged and have demanded a complete rollback of the entire domicile law and restoration of J&K’s statehood. They have asserted that vital issues like who can be a domicile of the erstwhile state stripped of its special constitutional status and split up into two Union Territories in August last year should be left to a duly elected Assembly to decide. The Centre had on the March 31 evening, while defining new domicile rule for J&K, made a person residing in the UT for at least 15 years or having studied for a period of seven years and appeared in Class 10th/12th examinations in a local educational institution eligible to be a domicile of it.

The definition expands to include “children of those Central government officials, all India services officers, officials of PSUs and autonomous body of Central government, public sector banks, officials of statutory bodies, officials of Central universities and recognised research institutes of the Centre who have served in J&K for a total period of 10 years”.

Through the same order, the Centre repealed the J&K Civil Services (Special Provisions) Act. Section 5A of the newly introduced J&K Civil Services (Decentraliz-ation and Recruitment) Act, stated that domiciles of J&K would have exclusive right on class-4th and nongazetted posts. However, it also said that all Indian citizens including J&K domiciles would be eligible for remaining non-gazetted and gazetted posts. Before August 5 last year, all jobs in J&K were exclusively reserved for permanent residents of the erstwhile state. The Ladakh region of the erstwhile state which is now a separate UT was not included in the gazetted notification.