A pall of gloom descended on the scenic Kashmir valley when it was learned that the Jammu and Kashmir administration had started granting new domicile certificates to non-Kashmiris. A senior J&K cadre Indian Administrative Service (IAS) officer from Bihar, Navin Kumar Choudhary, along with 30,000 others, was granted domicile documents.

“This is to certify, Shri Navin K Choudhary son of Shri Deokant Choudhary resident of at present Gandhi Nagar, Jammu, is a domicile of UT of J&K,” reads the certificate issued by Tehsildar Dr Rohit Sharma, in Bahu area of Jammu.

Choudhary’s certificate has his photograph pasted on it along with the Aadhaar card number.

The case of the bureaucrat, currently serving as principal secretary in the agriculture production department in J&K, is important, for he originally hails from Bihar and has now become a J&K domicile.