Citizenship rights of women in Jammu and Kashmir: An uncertain future

The Jammu and Kashmir Legislative Assembly passed by voice vote the Permanent Residents (Disqualification) Bill, 2004, commonly known as the Daughters' Bill, on 5 March 2004. The Bill seeks to deprive daughters of permanent residents of Jammu and Kashmir of their permanent resident status, and the rights and privileges associated with it, if they choose to marry persons who are not state subjects. Through an examination of the trajectory of the Bill, and the legal and judicial discourses surrounding it, this article argues that while seeking to preserve the specificity of the state of Jammu and Kashmir, the Bill creates a gendered hierarchy of citizens, making women's citizenship conditional and dependent on their status upon marriage. The article also identifies the contours of contest around the notion of the state subject and the issue of domicile to show how layers of exclusion have historically accumulated around them.