2nd conviction still in force, Azam Khan may stay disqualified

LUCKNOW: Samajwadi Party strongman Azam Khan’s acquittal by a Rampur court in the hate speech case that led to his disqualification from the UP assembly last year might have created a constitutional quandary requiring judicial intervention but for his recent sentencing by a Moradabad court in a 2008 case.
After Azam lost his assembly membership in October 2022, the resultant byelection to the Rampur Sadar seat in December saw BJP’s Akash Saxena defeat SP’s Asim Raja, an aide of Khan. In February this year, Azam’s son Abdullah Azam forfeited the Suar assembly seat following his conviction in a criminal case along with his father, giving BJP another opportunity to dismantle the family citadel brick by brick. BJP-backed Apna Dal (S) candidate Shafiq Ansari defeated SP’s Anuradha Chauhan in the Suar byelection this month.
Although Azam has been acquitted in one case, the likelihood of him seeking restoration of his status as an MLA by moving the Supreme Court could be affected by his second conviction and two-year sentence, legal experts said. That case against Azam and his son involves blocking traffic in Moradabad 15 years ago after their vehicle was stopped by police for checking.
Azam’s disqualification from the assembly had been in consonance with the Supreme Court’s ruling of July 10, 2013, stating that a sitting MP/MLA convicted of an offence and sentenced to two years or more in jail automatically stands disqualified from the House. The ruling came on writ petitions filed by Lily Thomas and SN Shukla of Lok Prahari.
The SC judgment declared Section 8(4) of the Representation of People Act ultra vires, a Latin phrase used in law to describe something that requires legal sanction but is done without it. Earlier, per that provision, a sitting MP/MLA, if convicted, could remain in office until he or she exhausted all legal remedies.
Until the SC ruling, there was no deterrent against political parties giving tickets to candidates with pending criminal cases because of the escape route available to them. Even if someone was convicted in any case, the standard response was to appeal the conviction and remain an MP or MLA.
A senior official of the UP government said there was no easy answer to whether Azam’s status as a disqualified MLA vis-à-vis the hate speech case would stand revoked if his acquittal holds. “The bullet has been fired. It can’t be taken back now,” he said, adding that only the SC could possibly resolve the “unusual situation”.
The former SP lawmaker had been sentenced to three years in prison by an MP/MLA court on October 27, 2022 after being convicted of making derogatory remarks about PM Narendra Modi, UP CM Yogi Adityanath and the then Rampur DM Anjaneya Kumar Singh.
Azam was convicted under IPC and Representation of People Act, 1951.
He has nearly 100 cases ranging from corruption and theft to land grab registered against his name since BJP came to office in UP in 2017.
Additional district government counsel Pratap Singh Maurya told TOI, “An appeal was filed by Azam Khan after he was convicted by the lower MP/MLA court. Azam’s appeal was accepted and the judgment by the lower court has been overturned.”
Azam’s counsel Zubair Ahmad said, “My client lost his assembly membership after the lower court’s judgment. We will study all legal aspects before deciding our next course of action.” Azam was charged under IPC Sections 153A (promoting enmity), 505-1 (public mischief), and Section 125 of the Representation of the People Act, 1951. Notably, Azam has been charged in over 90 cases of “extortion, criminal conspiracy and theft”. He was arrested in 2020 and was sent to jail for 27 months.