* 2nd panel framed within period of 9 months
Mohinder Verma
JAMMU, Mar 6: The much-delayed Permanent Resident Certificate (PRC) related issues of the women marrying non-State subjects continue to remain unresolved as even the PDP-BJP Coalition Government headed by woman Chief Minister is only constituting one after another committee instead of handling the matter with required seriousness.
This can be gauged from the fact that for the second time a committee of officers has been constituted during the past nine months just on the ground that the earlier panel has failed to handle the issue because of being sensitive in nature. However, whether the new committee would be able to accomplish the task of making necessary recommendations to the Government in a time bound manner remains a million dollar question in view of slackness in handling the issue till date.
Official sources told EXCELSIOR that prior to 2002, the Revenue Department was issuing Permanent Resident Certificates (PRCs) to the female residents of Jammu and Kashmir with the endorsement as “Valid Till Marriage”. This became ground for a petition before the State High Court about 15 years back whereby selection of a doctor was challenged on the plea that she was married to non-State subject.
The judgment of Single Judge whereby selection was quashed was challenged in the Division Bench of J&K High Court and keeping in view the involved legal issue a Full Bench comprising of Justice V Jhanji, Justice T Doabia and Justice M Jan was constituted. In view of the majority opinion, the Full Bench in a case titled Jammu and Kashmir Versus Dr Susheela Sawhney and Others held that a daughter of a permanent resident marrying a non-permanent resident will not lose the status of permanent resident of State of Jammu and Kashmir.
However, State Government failed to implement the judgment and in the absence of clear guidelines and clarifications on certain aspects, the revenue officers, who were authorized to issue Permanent Resident Certificates (PRCs) started facing difficulties and accordingly they approached the Administrative Department with certain issues.
Vide Government Order No.67-Rev (PRC) dated June 1, 2016, a committee under the chairmanship of Commissioner/ Secretary to Government, Revenue Department was constituted to consider the issues—the effect of endorsement “Valid Till Marriage” on the PRC which have been issued prior to the pronouncement of Susheela Sawhney judgment because of it being prospective in nature; the status of children born out of a couple where husband is a Non-State Subject and family was holding permanent resident certificate before her marriage; the right of female married to a non-permanent resident with respect to disposal of property inherited by her through parents etc.
However, the committee initially failed to meet within the stipulated time-frame of two months and thereafter simply recommended that keeping in view the sensitivity involved in the matter a new committee may be framed, sources said, adding instead of ascertaining from the committee about the reasons behind its failure to complete the entrusted task the PDP-BJP Coalition Government accepted the recommendation of the committee thereby exhibiting the level of non-seriousness.
Now, the Revenue Department Vide Order No.49-REV of 2017, issued few days back, has constituted a fresh committee headed by Advocate General and comprising of Commissioner/ Secretary to Government, Revenue Department, Secretary to Government, Department of Law, Justice and Parliamentary Affairs, Special Secretary Revenue Department, Advocate M H Sidiqui and Advocate N H Shah.
This committee has also been given the timeframe of two months for submission of report to the Government. Interestingly, three members of this panel were also in the committee constituted in the month of June last year, sources said, adding “if they failed to arrive at any consensus after thoroughly debating on the issues what wonders they will do as members of second committee remains million dollar question”.
It is pertinent to mention here that Governor N N Vohra has also forwarded to the Chief Minister a representation whereby the applicant has sought the status of the women belonging to J&K who married to non-state subject but were compelled to return to their parental homes due to death of their husband or divorce or other reasons.
The new committee will also deliberate on this subject but doubts are still being expressed about positive outcome as ever since the judgment of Full Bench of J&K High Court several years back no seriousness has been shown towards resolution of issues, sources said.
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