Azam Khan disqualified as an MLA after the jail sentence
29 Oct 2022 11:30:54
New Delhi, Oct 29: Senior Samajwadi Party leader Azam Khan has lost his state Assembly membership after his conviction Thursday in a hate speech case. On Friday evening, the Principal Secretary, of Vidhan Sabha, issued a letter declaring his Rampur Sadar seat “vacant.”
Confirming the move, sources in the Assembly said Khan automatically stood disqualified upon being sentenced for more than two years. “The Election Commission has been informed about the vacancy as well,” an official said.
Khan was convicted in a hate speech case lodged in the run-up to the 2019 Lok Sabha elections and sentenced to three years in prison. Khan was later granted bail by the Rampur MP/MLA court which heard the matter. While Khan sought eight days to file an appeal in a higher court against the verdict, which was granted, as per a Supreme Court order of July 2013, an appeal does not stand in the way of disqualification of an MP or MLA convicted in a case leading to the sentencing of more than two years. Khan had won from Rampur in this year’s Assembly elections with 59.71% of the votes. In second place was the BJP’s Akash Saxena, with 34.62% votes. On Friday, Saxena wrote to the Chief Election Commissioner seeking Khan’s disqualification after his conviction. The Supreme Court order that said MPs and MLAs would be immediately disqualified if convicted in a criminal case and sentenced to more than two years, struck down Section 8 (4) of the Representation of the People Act, 1951, which protected them from disqualification if they appealed before a higher court within three months. In a similar case in November 2021, BJP MLA from Ayodhya’s Gosaiganj constituency Indra Pratap alias ‘Khabbu Tiwari’ was disqualified after he was sentenced by a special court to five years in a 29-year-old fake mark sheet case. Sources in the state Assembly pointed out that as per the Court order, Khan automatically ceased to be a member of the Assembly. A source said even an order from the Governor is not required in such cases. Khan’s lawyer Vinod Sharma told the media, “We will file an appeal for a stay on the court order in the Sessions Court.” Asked about his disqualification from the Assembly, he said, “Let us see the order of the Sessions Court on our appeal.” The Samajwadi Party had won 111 of the 403 seats in the state elections, compared to the BJP’s 255. SP national spokesperson Rajendra Choudhary said, “We will discuss the legal aspects with the senior leadership within the party and lawyers. We will take a decision on what has to be done next under the law.”
An election official had filed a complaint against Khan on April 9, 2019, for in a speech in the Milak Vidhan Sabha area, saying he had “used foul language for people in Constitutional posts, threatened them, and tried to flare a riot”. The FIR was lodged under IPC Sections 153-A (promoting enmity between different groups), 505(1) (publishing or circulating any statement, rumor, or report), and Section 125 (promoting enmity between classes in connection with elections).