Over the past two years, more than 83,000 people who were not originally permanent residents of Jammu and Kashmir have been given domicile certificates, the J&K government informed the Assembly on Wednesday.

In a written reply to a question by PDP leader Waheed ur Rehman Para, the Revenue Department of J&K stated that a total of 35.12 lakh (3.512 million) domicile certificates were issued during this time. Out of these, 83,742 certificates went to individuals who were not earlier considered ‘state subjects’—a term that used to refer to permanent residents of the region. The reply clarified that the term "state subject," which was part of the old Constitution of Jammu and Kashmir, is no longer valid after the abrogation of Article 370 in August 2019. The previous rules used to define permanent residency, which are now no longer applicable under the current legal system.

Under the old J&K Constitution, people were considered permanent residents if they met certain criteria as of May 14, 1954. This included being classified as Class I or Class II state subjects. Class-I: This referred to people who were born and lived in the region before Maharaja Gulab Singh's rule started in 1846 or those who settled in the state before the Samvat year 1942 (1885). Class-II: This refers to individuals who moved to Jammu and Kashmir, settled there permanently, and bought property before the Samvat year 1968 (1911), during Maharaja Pratap Singh's rule. Additionally, the law allowed people who had migrated to areas that later became Pakistan but returned with official permits to resettle. In May 2020, the Jammu and Kashmir administration introduced new rules for issuing domicile certificates under the J&K Grant of Domicile Certificate (Procedure) Rules, 2020. 

These changes followed the Jammu and Kashmir Reorganisation (Adaptation of State Laws) Order, 2020, which updated who can be considered a domicile of the region. As per the revised rules, a person can apply for domicile status if they have either lived in Jammu and Kashmir for at least 15 years, or if they have studied there for seven years and appeared in either the Class 10 or Class 12 examination in the Union Territory. Now, people like West Pakistan Refugees, sanitation workers (safai karamcharis), and children of women from Jammu and Kashmir who married outside the region are also eligible for residency rights. Earlier, these groups were denied this right under the old laws, but they are now included.