More than 99 percent of the domicile certificates have been issued to erstwhile Permanent Residence Certificate (PRC) holders

More than 12.5 lakh domicile certificates have been issued by the Jammu and Kashmir administration until August 31. The Union Territory administration began issuing domicile certificates more than two months ago.

A report in The Indian Express quoted J&K administration spokesperson Rohit Kansal as saying that “more than 99 percent” of the domicile certificates have been issued to erstwhile Permanent Residence Certificate (PRC) holders.

“We have been reviewing the process regularly and the process of issuance of the certificate is picking up rapidly. Over 12.5 lakh certificates have already been issued and practically all of them have been issued to those who were holders of PRC, including Kashmiri Pandit migrants and others,” he added.

The report also quoted Principal Secretary Revenue Pawan Kotwal as saying that this certificate is not related to land rights. He further said the person holding this certificate is not entitled to get land here.

In April, the central government introduced the domicile clause extending protections to those who have “resided for fifteen years in the UT of J&K or has studied for seven years and appeared in class 10th/12th examination in an educational institution located in the UT of J&K.”

The government then issued the Grant of Domicile Certificate (Procedure) Rules, defining the requirements for issuance of the certificates and including in its ambit West Pakistan Refugees, safai karamcharis, and children of women married outside Jammu and Kashmir.

Further, an e-application and issuance of the domicile certificate portal were launched, after which the rollout of the certificates began.

The J&K spokesperson was quoted as saying that the government undertook a detailed review of the situation and on August 25 it issued an SRO 263 further simplifying the process for erstwhile PRC holders whereby the time for issuance of these certificates was reduced from 15 days to five days.

“..For holders of PRC, no additional enquiry would be required and a domicile certificate would be issued simply on the strength of availability of the PRC,” he added, according to the report.

Read the full report in The Indian Express