The term domicile is not defined in the Act. The domicile of a person is the place where he has his true, fixed, permanent home and establishment go which he intends returning.

Every person must at all times. Possess a domicile

 Two things are therefore essential to constitute domicile. 1) Residence and 2) An intention of making it a home of the party. It follows that domicile may be acquired by residence but residence at a place does not necessarily make it a place of domicile, without any intention of making it the permanent home would not be sufficient.

In Craignish v Craignish, it was observed “That place is properly the domicile of a person jn which his habitation is fixed without any present intention of removing therefrom.

The importance of domicile in the law of succession is due to the rules of private international law that while rights over immovable properties are governed by the law of the country where such properties are situated. There are 3 kinds of Domicile – Domicile of origin, Domicile of choice, and Domicile by operation of law. Although a person may have more than one domicile, for the purpose of succession to movable property, he had only one domicile. Domicile of origin is a legal tie which binds a person at the moment of his birth to a given system of law. It is a settled principal that no man can be without a domicile and the law attributes a domicile to every child as soon S he is born.

Most important, this does not apply if the deceased was a Hindu, Muslim, Buddhist, Sikh or Jain.

If a immovable property left behind by an intestate in India is regulated by the law of India, whenever the deceased may have his domicile at the time of his death. Moveable property left behind by an intestate anywhere is regulated by the law of the country in which the deceased has hid domicile at the time of his death.  Domicile thus means the country which is taken to be a man’s permanent home for the purpose of determining his civil status.

Any person may acquire a domicile in India by making and depositing in the appropriate office in India, a decleration in writing under his hand of his desire to acquire such domicile. However the person should have been a resident in India for one year.

But a person who is appointed by the Government of one country to be ambassador or other representative in another country does not acquire a domicile in the latter country by reason only of residing there in pursuance of his appointment nor does any other person acquire such domicile by reason only of residing with that person as part of his family. A woman in India acquires the domicile of her husband and as long as she is married to him it follows the domicile of her husband. However when they are separated by an order of a competent Court or if the husband is undergoing a sentence of transportation, the wife domicile does not follow that of her husband. An insane person like a minor cannot acquire a new domicile except by following the domicile.

Aishwarya Says:

I have always been against Glorifying Over Work and therefore, in the year 2021, I have decided to launch this campaign “Balancing Life”and talk about this wrong practice, that we have been following since last few years. I will be talking to and interviewing around 1 lakh people in the coming 2021 and publish their interview regarding their opinion on glamourising Over Work.

If you are interested in participating in the same, do let me know.

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We also have a Facebook Group Restarter Moms for Mothers or Women who would like to rejoin their careers post a care