On Aug 5, PM cleared way for ending gender discrimination against women in J&K but ‘his people’ failed him

Shadows of Gender Discriminating J&K State Subject Laws of pre-1947 days & those of PR laws of erstwhile Indian State of J&K still casting their ugly shadows

Daya Sagar

Delay in issuing clarifications removing doubts/orders to the dealing officers concerning the Permanent Resident of J&K Certificate holder ‘girl child’ / woman married to a non- Permanent Resident (PR) of erstwhile Indian state of J&K laying down that Children of a PRC holder woman married to a Non PR of J&K Indian citizen and the Non PR husband / spouse be issued Domicile Certificate ( DC) on the basis of the PRC of the mother / wife only is surely unduly affecting the goodwill of the Prime Minister Narendra Modi even after his having got Art-35A scraped. There is utmost need for issuing amendments / clarification as Regards Rule- 5 of S.0 166 or 18-05-2020 { Jammu and Kashmir Grant of Domicile Certificate ( procedure) Rules 2020 } on priority so that the applicants as well as the designated competent authority for issue of DC are relieved of undue stresses/ pressures/harassment . A draft amendment as it could be made in the table contained in Rule- 5 ( Rule-5 : Class of persons, Documents required , Authority Competent and Appellate Authority for issuance of Domicile Certificate ) of S.O 166 dated 18-05-2020, suggested earlier also, is placed herewith in Table -A . If needed it could be improved further.

Before Independence the Indian Princely State of Jammu and Kashmir had restricted the rights, particularly on state services and properties in J&K, to the people who were notified as the State Subjects of Jammu and Kashmir. In the State Subject law of the Princely State of J&K the male subjects of J&K had been legally and socially rated superior to the female thereby in a way inflicting inhuman gender discrimination against woman subjects since the woman of the State in case married a non State Subject (one from any other territory outside J&K) her husband as well as children had no fundamental right to become the State Subject of J&K. Where as in case a male married a non state subject woman then such woman as well as their children had the right to become State Subject of the then Princely State.
Even after independence a J&K State specific law was adopted to create a category of some Indian Citizens by the name of Permanent Resident of J&K , in a way including all the erstwhile State Subjects of Princely State of J&K / would be State subjects of J&K in that category, also carrying along the discriminatory inhuman rules / law involving gender specific discrimination against the woman state subjects / permanent residents of J&K. Although the rules / laws permitting gender discrimination against woman in J&K were provided a constitutional cover by Art-35A of Constitution of India but still the local governments/ legislature had provisions to apply corrections but that did not happen for nearly 7 decades. And it was only when people voted to strength the great humanitarian Narendra Damodar Das Modi that The Constitution (Application to Jammu and Kashmir) order, 2019 C.O. 272 of date 5th August 2019 was got issued by President of India there by superseding C.O 48 of 14-05-1954 and hence also scrapping Art35A.
There after followed the Reorganisation of J&K Act No 34 of 2019 and the removal difficulties orders where under the requirement where ever mentioned Permanent Resident Certificate as a requirement too was deleted. All round appreciations and thanks were showered on the person of Prime Minister Narendra Modi who himself also described the action/ move also as a humanitarian step to bring to an end the inhuman Gender Discrimination that the Woman / Girl Child was facing in J&K. Felicitations were showered on Modi.
But while issuing order S.O. 1229(E) of 31-03-2020 & S.O. 1245(E) of 03-04-2020 laying down definition of Domicile of UT of J&K as well as while laying down the Rules for issue of Domicile Certificate under SO 166 of 18-05-2020 provisions to cover requirements like that “Spouse / children of a PR/SS of J&K/ Domicile of UT of J&K shall be Domicile of UT of J&K ” were not been incorporated inspite of there being repeated suggestions for doing that since the conventions that existed before 5th August could still cause illusion in the working of some officers/ officials dealing domicile cases. And right since the day the process for issue of Domicile of UT of J&K Certificates was started problems are being faced by the Permanent Resident Woman of erstwhile J&K State married to non Permanent Resident , her spouse and their children .Daily State Times has recently on 10th September placed in public domain the case of oneMs Aahana Sharma D/O Ankita Sharma ( a J&K Permanent Resident ) whose application for Domicile Certificate was submitted vide Application DOM/0207/ 04Jul202/13012 1986 Dated 04-07-2020along with the PRC of her mother as parent but she was denied Domicile after 66 days by the concerned Tehsildar suggesting that since her father was a non PRC she cannot get Domicile by treating her Mother as parent. There have been cases where even PRC holder woman have been denied Domicile since their husband has been a non PR of J&K and it has been after 10 September that may be in view of gender discrimination issue was raised in State Times one such woman has been issued Domicile Certificate but her son has not been yet issued.
It was hoped that atleast after 10th September 2020 seniors in the administration would have brought the deficiencies in S. O. 166 of 18-05-2020 to the notice of Lt Governor who has been every second day expressing his priorities resting in prompt and good governance but since the clarifications / amendments have not yet been put in the public domain it appears that Hon’ble Manoj Sinha LG is not being provided needed inputs. Instead as per the information received Ms Ahana’s mother is said to have received a call from concerned Competent Authority (Tehsildar) on 25th September informing her that since her husband is not a PRC holder the her children / girl child is not yet entitled for Domicile Certificate. This has resulted in the pious intentions of Prime Minister Narendra Modi falling short of their reach. It appears that the people even from the political arena near to Prime Minister are not that truthfully conducting the routes for good governance that he is intends to lay or is tirelessly working to lay every moment.
Daya Sagar: Patron JKSC . Sr Journalist / Analyst Jammu & Kashmir Affairs [email protected])