Resident And Domicile – Introduction
There is a lot of confusion among students regarding domicile and resident. In the year 2020, there have been various changes that have been brought in the law relating to Domicile in various States in India. The state of Jammu and Kashmir has been made a Union territory and after that, in April, there have been certain changes relating to Domicile. Earlier only the people who were residents of the State used to get benefits from the government jobs etc. but now after the change in the rule, all the privileges can be enjoyed by other individuals in the country too. In the same manner in the State of Andra Pradesh and Telangana, there were certain scheduled areas where there were 100 percent reservations were being provided to the Scheduled Tribes but in April 2020 Supreme Court has struck down such rule.
February 2020, there was some sort of development in the state of Jharkhand where there was a regulation promulgated which stated that only the people who were having the domicile of the State of Jharkhand will be provided with the reservation benefits under the Quota of SC, ST, and OBC, and no other person will be allowed reservation though they are belonging to the same category.
Even in the Novel Coronavirus situation, there has been a step taken by the government to bring the migrants labourer back to their domiciled state.
If we refer to the Indian Constitution, Article 5 of the Indian Constitution has mentioned about the term ‘Domicile’ but has not defined the term there. Now if refer to Article 19(1)(d) and (e) which talks about that the citizens have the fundamental Rights to move throughout the territory of India and to reside and settle in any part of the territory of India respectively. There are around 29% of the population in our country who have migrated from one place to another and have settled there.
Various state governments have created various provisions regarding benefits that a person who is domicile of that state can avail. Even this measure has been used for political benefits also, like in 2016 during the elections Lallu Prasad Yadav demanded 80% reservations for the belonging to Bihar in Bihar. Likewise, the State of Andra Pradesh and Jharkhand in the year 2000, 100% reservation was provided to the ST category people in Primary Schools.
Difference Between Resident And Domicile
Domicile is the place where you originally belong rather than where you are currently living. Whereas Resident in the place where you are at that particular time residing.
So the state to which one belongs is his/her domicile. So it is fixed in nature whereas resident changes with the movement of the person from one state to another.
Importance of Domicile
There are various examples where the states have made it their priority to give certain benefits to the people belonging to their state. So basically 3 major benefits are provided to the people who are domiciled in a particular state-
- Priorities in Government Jobs;
- Priorities in Educational Institutions
- The benefits of various Schemes of the State Governments
In order to get these benefits, it has to be proved by the individual that they belong to that particular State. They are required to get domicile paper.
How to get domicile paper?
The person has to apply for domicile and the paper is valid for life-long. There are various residential requirements required to claim domicile, like in Maharashtra, a person has to live for 15 years to get the domicile certificate. In MP the requirement is only for 5 years. Complying this condition various other requirements are to be filled up in the forms.
Domicile is of various types. They are-
- From birth;
- By Self Interest;
- Changed by law like change in domicile of father and mother or wife and husband domicile
Domicile by only be one, dual domicile is not permitted and its also a punishable offence.
This article has been written by Yogesh Mishra, Assistant Prof. of Law at KIIT School of Law.
