Legal provisions for domicile certificate issuance must consider social belongingness and residence, not just birthplace.

JUDGMENT :

BECHU KURIAN THOMAS, J.

1. Petitioner challenges the rejection of his application for issuance of a Domicile Certificate stating that the applicant and his parents were born and brought up in Kolkata. In view of the above rejection, the question that arises for consideration is whether the refusal to issue a Domicile Certificate to a person born outside Kerala is legally justifiable.

2. Petitioner was born on 18.08.2006 at Kolkata. His paternal grandfather belonged to Kozhikode District in Kerala, while his parents were both born and brought up in Kolkata, West Bengal. Petitioner claims that, after his birth, his parents shifted to Kozhikode in the year 2007 and permanently settled in their ancestral house at Naduvannur Village in Kozhikode District. Petitioner has pleaded that he commenced his schooling in the first standard at Little Flower Public School, Naduvannur, Kozhikode, and continued his studies from the second standard to the seventh standard at Vakayad A.U.P. School, Avitanallur, Kozhikode District, and thereafter, completed his tenth standard from Vakayad Higher Secondary School, Naduvannur, Kozhikode. Petitioner also claimed that he pursued his higher secondary course also at Avittanallur Government Higher Secondary School, Kozhikode.

3. In support of the above contentions, petitioner has produced his Secondary School Leaving Certificate as well as his Higher Secondary School Leaving Certificate as Ext.P3 and Ext.P4 respectively. Further, petitioner’s father is stated to have died in Kerala on 04.10.2022, as evident from Ext.P5 death certificate issued by the Kozhikode Corporation. Petitioner claims that he was issued with an Aadhar Card in the year 2013 where his permanent residence is shown as Kozhikode. Thus, petitioner asserted that though he was born in Kolkata, soon thereafter he had shifted his residence to Kerala and has been permanently residing in Kozhikode with his schooling done entirely in the State of Kerala. According to him, his domicile is in Kerala and he needs a certificate of domicile urgently, as he has applied to the post of Agniveer (General Category) in the Indian Army and a Domicile Certificate is essential to process his application. Despite all factors favouring him, his application for the Domicile Certificate was rejected by Ext.P8 stating that he was born in Kolkata and was even brought up there.

4. The learned Government Pleader, upon instructions, submitted that the Village Officer had, after conducting the enquiry, recommended the issuance of Domicile Certificate to the petitioner. It was also submitted that the enquiry revealed that the petitioner though born in Kolkata, had completed his studies in Kerala and that the address in the Aadhaar Card as well his residence are both in Naduvannur, Kozhikode District, Kerala. The learned Government Pleader, however, submitted that as per the Kerala Land Revenue Manual, the Domicile Certificate can be issued only if the applicant was born and brought up in Kerala and hence the Tahsildar rejected the application.

5. Considering the urgency pleaded by the petitioner that he has been given time to produce the Domicile Certificate till 23.01.2026, I heard Smt. S. Parvathy, the learned counsel for the petitioner as well as Smt. Amminikutty K., the learned Senior Government Pleader. Having regard to the urgency pleaded and as it involves the career of a youngster, all parties were at ad idem that the writ petition can be disposed of.

6. At the outset itself, it needs to be mentioned that in Exhibit P8, it is stated that the petitioner was not only born, but even brought up in Kolkata. The latter