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Updated: Apr 24, 2019 10:47 IST

The Jammu and Kashmir high court on Monday admitted a petition filed by a woman, a permanent resident of the state but divorced from her husband who is from West Bengal, seeking permanent resident certificates (PRCs) for her two sons, turning the focus onto the contentious Article 35-A of the Constitution that has been challenged before the Supreme Court .

The petitioner, Renu Nanda (56), is a professor in the University of Jammu. Divorced in October 1998, she lives with her sons, Madhav Kumar (30) and Keshav Kumar (32), in Talab Tillo area of Jammu city. In 2013, she had applied for PRCs for her sons, which were neither issued nor declined by the administration.

After hearing Ankur Sharma, the counsel for Nanda, justice Dhiraj Singh Thakur issued notices to Jammu and Kashmir State and the Jammu deputy commissioner directing them to file a counter-affidavit in two weeks.

Nanda’s case is against the gender discrimination inherent in 35-A.If a woman from J&K marries a man from another state, her husband and children will not get permanent resident certificates. However, if a man from J&K marries a woman from some other state, even a foreign country, she and her children automatically become citizens of the state and get all the privileges defined under Article 35-A.

On Monday, Nanda’s counsel submitted before the court that she was serving in the University of Jammu as professor and both her parents were permanent residents under Section 6 of the Constitution of Jammu & Kashmir. Denying PRCs to her sons would be encroaching upon their fundamental rights guaranteed under Articles 14, 19 and 21 of the Constitution of India, he argued.

He added that any discretionary power, as in the present case where the children of a divorced female permanent resident of J&K were not being granted PRCs, was illegal and arbitrary.

“Prof Nanda is the mother of Keshav Kumar and Madhav Kumar... Father of Keshav and Madhav was a non-state subject and the children, who were minors at the time of divorce of their parents, remained in the exclusive custody of their mother in J&K only,” the petition said.

J&K law secretary Achal Sethi said, “There is no clear cut judgment on such an issue...a full bench judgment (of the HC) had already made it clear in the past that state-subject women will not lose their citizenship rights even if they married non state-subjects. But this aspect of seeking PRCs for her sons has to be studied. We have not given any stated position of the government on PRCs in any court of law and such an issue had also not come up before us. The state government will study the petition and take a stand.”