The Gujarat High Court has directed the State authorities to issue a domicile certificate to an 18-year-old NEET aspirant, holding that a temporary relocation outside Gujarat due to her father’s employment transfer cannot be treated as a break in the ten-year residency requirement for domicile.
Justice Nirzar S. Desai was hearing a petition filed by a student whose application for a domicile certificate had been rejected on the ground that she had not continuously resided in Gujarat for ten years. The petitioner had studied in Gujarat from nursery to Standard IV, moved to Chennai for two years after her father’s transfer, and thereafter returned to Gujarat where she completed her schooling up to Standard XII. She contended that she had spent the overwhelming majority of her life in Gujarat and that her temporary stay outside the State was solely because of her father’s official posting.
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The State relied on a Government Circular requiring ten years of continuous residence in Gujarat for issuance of a domicile certificate. However, the Court noted that the issue had already been settled in earlier decisions in Muskan Sunilkanth Tiwari v. State of Gujarat, 2018 SCC OnLine Guj 7163 and Tilakkumar Vijaykumar Mishra v. State of Gujarat, R/SCA No. 6118 of 2024 where Courts held that the concept of domicile cannot be narrowly interpreted to mandate uninterrupted physical residence for ten years and that such a condition cannot be imported through executive instructions when it is absent from the governing rules.
Applying these precedents, the Court observed that the petitioner had pursued her education in Gujarat from kindergarten through Standard XII except for a two-year period necessitated by her father’s transfer. It held that such a temporary absence could not reasonably be regarded as a break in her residence for the purpose of determining domicile eligibility.
Accordingly, the High Court quashed the order rejecting the petitioner’s application and directed the competent authority to issue her domicile certificate within one week, and in any event not later than July 30, 2026.
