Criminal Case: SC To Hear Plea Of Disqualified UP MLA Abdullah Azam Khan

The Supreme Court recently agreed to list Samajwadi Party (SP) leader Mohammad Abdullah Azam Khan’s plea on Friday.

The plea challenges the Allahabad High Court order which rejected his plea seeking a stay on his conviction in a matter related to the protest case.

Abdullah Azam Khan’s lawyer mentioned the plea before a bench headed by Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud, who agreed to list it on April 21, Friday.

Abdullah Azam Khan’s lawyer seeks an urgent hearing on the plea in view of the bye-election.

The Allahabad high court refused to stay the conviction of Mohammad Abdullah Azam Khan in connection with a 2008 protest case, which led to his disqualification as an MLA from the Uttar Pradesh assembly.

Mohammad Abdullah Azam Khan, who is the son of the Senior SP leader Azam Khan, has moved the top court against Allahabad HC’s order.

Earlier, the Supreme Court requested the Allahabad High Court to decide at the earliest Mohammad Abdullah Azam Khan’s plea seeking a stay of his conviction in a matter related to the protest.
Mohammad Abdullah Azam Khan claimed that he was a juvenile as of the date of the incident, and has challenged the Allahabad High Court order dated March 17.

Therefore, Khan got disqualified from UP Legislative Assembly after he was convicted and sentenced to 2-year imprisonment in a 15-year-old case. Abdulla Azam Khan was representing ‘Suar’ in Rampur district in the Assembly.

Abdullah Azam Khan, and his father, were convicted in Uttar Pradesh’s local court of allegedly using criminal force to deter a public servant from discharging his duty and other provisions of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) in a matter pertaining to a dharna on a state highway in January 2008.

Abdullah Azam Khan moved to Allahabad High Court against a trial court order seeking suspension of his sentence.

In the plea, Abdullah Khan apprised the court that on March 17, the High Court of Allahabad after perusing the application preferred by the Petitioner granted the respondent state a time period of 3 weeks to file a counter affidavit.

However, he failed to appreciate the fact that if the application isn’t decided expeditiously then the same would be rendered infructuous and the Petitioner would suffer irreparable harm.

On February 13, Trial Court convicted Abdullah Azam Khan for offenses punishable under Section 353, 341 IPC and 7 Criminal Law Amendment Act, 1932, and sentenced him to undergo 2 years of simple imprisonment.

Subsequent, the order of the Trial Court on February 13, 2023, convicted the petitioner, and the Assembly Secretariat, Uttar Pradesh Legislative Assembly on February 15, 2023, notified that the Constituency seat of Suar, district Rampur of the Uttar Pradesh Legislative Assembly has become vacant.

The petitioner appealed to the Court of Additional Sessions Judge, Rampur against the order of the Trial Court and also filed an application for a stay of conviction and sentence.

However, the Sessions Court dismissed the said application on February 28. Thereafter, the Petitioner approached the High Court against the order.

The Petitioner stated that he believes that during the pendency of the application before the High Court, a by-election to the Rampur Constituency would be announced.

The Petitioner stated that he is concerned that if such an announcement is made and thereafter, the High Court passes a stay order the same would be rendered moot due to the announcement of the by-elections.