Article 35A of the Constitution, adopted in 1954, empowers Jammu and Kashmir's legislature to decide who are the state's residents and to confer special rights and privileges on them.

Residents are defined as those who lived in the region when the law was approved in 1954 or those who have lived in the state for 10 consecutive years after that and own property there.

Article 35A bans outsiders from owning property in the state so that the area's demographics are not significantly altered; they cannot get government jobs or scholarships in state-run educational institutions. Women who marry non-residents did not have the right to own property till a court order in 2002 changed that. Those acknowledged as residents are given a certificate establishing them as permanent residents.

Article 35A, which has been challenged in the Supreme Court, was added to the Constitution through a presidential order without parliament's review.