Samajwadi Party MLA Abdullah Azam Khan Disqualified From Uttar Pradesh Assembly After Conviction in 15-Year-Old Case

LUCKNOW: Samajwadi Party MLA Abdullah Azam Khan was disqualified from the Uttar Pradesh Assembly on Wednesday, an official said, days after a court sentenced him to two-year imprisonment in a 15-year-old case. The Representation of the People Act lists offences which can lead to disqualification of legislators and states that anyone sentenced to imprisonment of two years or more shall be disqualified "from the date of such conviction" and remain disqualified for another six years after serving time in jail.

This is Khan's second disqualification from the Assembly and comes months after his father and senior Samajwadi Party leader Azam Khan was disqualified from the legislature after his conviction in a hate speech case. The junior Khan represented Suar in Rampur district in the Assembly.

"Abdullah Azam Khan has been disqualified following the Moradabad court order sentencing him to two years (in jail) in a 15-year-old case. His seat has been declared vacant from February 13," a senior official of the Assembly said.

On Monday, the Moradabad court awarded the jail term to Abdullah Azam Khan and his father in the 2008 case.

They were sentenced under section 353 (criminal force to deter public servant from discharge of his duty) and other provisions of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) over a dharna on a state highway on January 29, 2008 as their cavalcade was stopped by police for checking in the wake of an attack on a CRPF camp in Rampur on December 31, 2007.

The court has, however, granted bail to both of them. The junior Khan was earlier disqualified from the Assembly in 2020 after the Allahabad High Court set aside his election. The disqualification was effective from December 16, 2019.

The Allahabad High Court had ruled that he was not qualified to contest the election as he was below 25 years of age when he filed his nomination papers as the SP candidate from Suar in 2017.

He again won from Suar in the 2022 assembly elections. In October last year, the senior Khan, who represented Rampur Sadar in the Assembly, faced disqualification after a court sentenced him to three years in jail in a hate speech case.

In the by-poll held on the seat in December last year, BJP's Akash Saxena had defeated Khan's protege Asim Raza. Azam Khan had won the Rampur Sadar seat nine times since 1980.