Facilitating students: Court directs authorities to accept ‘Form B’ instead of domicile

Domicile certificate to be presented at the time of college admission.

PESHAWAR: In a bid to facilitate students going through the painstaking process of obtaining domicile certificates, Peshawar High Court (PHC) on Thursday directed concerned officials to instead accept birth certificates – otherwise known as ‘Form B’ – for college admissions.

A PHC division bench comprising Justice Yahya Afridi and Justice Nisar Hussain Khan also directed the deputy commissioner (DC) to distribute domicile forms at every educational institution and book stall so that students could collect them without  hassle.

The bench ordered Form B be accepted instead of domicile certificates only while submitting college admission forms, adding students should be asked to produce their domicile certificate at the time of admission.

The orders were issued by the bench while hearing a petition filed by Advocate Essa Khan, who earlier challenged the newly-inducted policy for obtaining a domicile certificate. Essa argued obtaining the certificate had now become a tedious process.

Khan also contended the form’s price had been increased from Rs10 to Rs30, adding it was earlier available at stationary stalls, but could now only be collected from the DC’s office.

Khan said people were forced to wait in long queues outside the DC’s office which was a waste of time. The updated policy also directs the forms be signed by patwaris, who according to Khan have low credibility, whereas getting the forms signed by tehsildars had become another contributing factor to a slow and arduous process.

Published in The Express Tribune, July 5^th, 2013.