Amid protest from the Jammu unit of BJP, Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) reversed its order issued on March 31 offering protection to domiciles only in Group D and entry-level non-gazetted government posts. A fresh order issued late Friday provides protection to domiciles to “any post” in the government including senior level positions in Group A and Group B category.
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Friday’s order also removed the clause that any person fulfilling the criteria of domicile eligibility will “deemed to be” a domicile. The power to issue domicile certificates has been given to “tahsildar”. In all, it made six changes to Tuesday’s order.
After revoking the special Status of Jammu and Kashmir under Article 370 on August 6 last year , MHA amended a 2010 legislation — the Jammu and Kashmir Civil Services (Decentralisation and Recruitment Act) on March 31 by substituting the term “permanent residents” with “domiciles of J&K.”
The order defined domiciles as anyone “who has resided for a period of 15 years in the U.T. of J&K or has studied for a period of seven years and appeared in Class 10th/12th examination in an educational institution located in the U.T. of J&K or who is registered as a migrant by the Relief and Rehabilitation Commissioner (Migrants).”
“Children of Central Government officials, All India Services, PSUs, autonomous body of Centre, Public Sector Banks, officials of statutory bodies, Central Universities, recognised research institutes of Centre who have served in J&K for a total period of 10 years” will be domiciles. The domicile status also applies to “children of such residents of J&K who reside outside J&K in connection with their employment or business or other professional or vocational reasons but their parents should fulfil any of the conditions provided”
The changes meant that the domiciles would have been eligible “for the purposes of appointment to any post carrying a pay scale of not more than Level 4.” The Level 4 post comprises positions such as gardeners, barbers, office peons and waterman and the highest rank in the category is that of a junior assistant.
As soon as the notification was issued, it was strongly opposed by all political parties in J&K including the newly formed Apni Party. The BJP unit of Jammu lodged a strong protest with Home Minister Amit Shah on Friday.
On August 6, the Centre revoked the special status of J&K under Article 370 and Article 35A of the Constitution and downgraded and bifurcated it into two Union Territories of J&K and Ladakh. The two revoked provisions of the Constitution let the J&K Legislature decide the “permanent residents”, prohibiting a non-J&K resident from buying property there and ensuring job reservation for its residents.
According to MHA’s reply to a parliamentary panel on February 18, there are over 84,000 vacancies in J&K of which 22078 vacancies pertain to Class IV employees, 54375 to non-gazettted and 7552 vacancies at Gazetted level.
