NL Correspondent
Jammu Tawi, Nov 12
While the special status of the erstwhile J&K state had gone, the pre-370 mindset still persists on its full scale as some institutions have yet to come to terms. The newly born Jammu and Kashmir is the only Union Territory in India where the Hon'ble Speaker of the erstwhile Legislative Assembly still holds the office while the state of Jammu and Kashmir had ceased to exist on Oct. 30, 2019.
Even on Oct. 31, the appointed day when the Union Territory of J&K came into being, the President quoting the report of the Lieutenant Governor (LG) of J&K UT suspended at least 36 clauses of the J&K Reorganisation Act pertaining to the Legislative Assembly of J&K UT and its related matters.
The report of LG on the basis of which the president suspended all the provisions of the yet-to-be-born Legislative Assembly of Union Territory of Jammu & Kashmir on October 30th, 2019, left no institution like the Legislative Assembly of UT of J&K for the time being in force.
The anomalous issue has already been in the public domain as this publication has carried a news report on Nov. 07 about the extinction of the erstwhile state of J&K, its Legislative Assembly and the continuation of Dr Nirmal Singh as its Speaker availing all privileges, perks and pleasure.
Sub-section 2 (c) of Section 19 of the J&K Reorganisation Act cannot come to the rescue of the Speaker of the erstwhile Legislative Assembly as statutorily the Assembly of J&K UT cannot be a successor of the former state Assembly. Even clause 9 of the Presidential Order – J&K Reorganisation (Removal of Difficulties) Act issued on Oct 30, 2019, cannot help the Hon'ble Speaker to hold his office anymore.
Interestingly, the Centre and the new Lt. Governor have chosen to look the other way round from this constitutional anomaly in new J&K UT for the reasons best known to them. Comments from the Raj Bhawan could not be obtained as phone calls attempts were not responded to.
Without getting caught in the legal nitty-gritty one can safely assume that the law is purported to protect the sanctity of the constitution and governing action in the larger public good as people know what the propriety demands.
