Srinagar, April 16 -- The Jammu & Kashmir Legislative Assembly has completed over five months of its five-year term, yet the crucial post of deputy speaker remains vacant.
According to the Jammu & Kashmir Reorganisation Act, the election for the deputy speaker must be conducted "as soon as may be". "The Legislative Assembly shall, as soon as may be, choose two members of the Assembly to be respectively Speaker and Deputy Speaker thereof and, so often as the office of Speaker or Deputy Speaker becomes vacant, the Assembly shall choose another member to be Speaker or Deputy Speaker, as the case may be," reads sub-section (1) of section 19 of the law.
As per parliamentary convention, the deputy speaker's post is offered to the largest opposi...