UT admin ends tenure of Nirmal Singh as Speaker

Amit Khajuria

Tribune News Service

Jammu, November 17

After much speculations and confusion, the administration of the Union Territory (UT) of Jammu and Kashmir has ended the tenure of Speaker of the legislative Assembly of the erstwhile state of J&K with effect from October 31, in a notification issued on Saturday.

The tenure of Nirmal Singh, who was the speaker of the Legislative Assembly of the erstwhile state, is deemed to have ended on October 31, the day J&K officially become a UT.

Senior BJP leader Nirmal Singh was the Speaker of the legislative assembly of the erstwhile state of Jammu and Kashmir since May 2018, when the then PDP-BJP government had a major reshuffle.

Singh continued to be the Speaker of the legislative assembly after the dissolution of the state assembly on November 22, 2018, by then Governor Satya Pal Malik.

As the erstwhile state was converted into two Union Territories from October31, the UT administration headed by Girish Chandra Murmu, issued a notification after the lapse of 16 days on Saturday, ending the tenure of the Speaker.

The notification issued by the Department of Law, Justice and Parliamentary Affairs reads: “Nirmal Singh was appointed as Speaker of the Legislative Assembly of the erstwhile state of J&K under Section 57 of the Constitution of Jammu and Kashmir and continued after the dissolution of Assembly under Section 58.”

It further says: “ Whereas, the President of India, while exercising the powers under Section 73 of the Jammu and Kashmir Reorganisation Act, 2019, suspended the provision of sections relating to Legislative Assembly, including the appointment of Speaker of the Legislative Assembly and his continuation in the office on October 31, 2019. Whereas, the matter has been examined in consultation with the learned advocate general of the UT of Jammu and Kashmir and the legal position, which has emerged in that the Speaker of the legislative assembly of the erstwhile state of Jammu and Kashmir cannot hold the said office after the reorganisation of the state of Jammu and Kashmir into the UT of Jammu and Kashmir and the UT of Ladakh with effect from October 31.”

With these observations, the Law Department has communicated through notification: “Nirmal Singh, speaker of the Legislative Assembly of the erstwhile state of Jammu and Kashmir shall be deemed to have ceased to hold the office of Speaker of the erstwhile state of Jammu and Kashmir with effect from October 31, 2019.”