New Delhi: The Rampur Sessions Court in Uttar Pradesh on Thursday dismissed an application filed by senior Samajwadi Party leader Azam Khan, seeking a stay on his sentence in the 2019 Hate Speech case.
After hearing both the sides, the court turned down Azam Khan’s appeal, paving the way for a by-election to the Rampur Sadar assembly seat, which has fallen vacant following Khan’s disqualification as an MLA.
Prosecution officer Amarnath Tiwari told The Indian Express, ‘Azam Khan had sought a stay on the order passed by the MP/MLA court of Rampur. The court dismissed his plea and the appeal hearing (against the conviction in the inflammatory speech case) would go on as usual.
After this decision of the court, the Election Commission has issued a revised schedule for the by-election of Rampur assembly seat of Uttar Pradesh and the notification for this will be issued on Friday.
On November 9, the Supreme Court had asked the Election Commission to defer the issuance of notification for by-elections to Rampur Sadar assembly seat till November 11 so that it can approach the appellate court to stay the conviction.
According to the report, a bench of Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud and Justice Hima Kohli and Justice JB Pardiwala ordered the Additional Sessions Judge, Rampur to hear the application for stay of Azam Khan’s conviction earlier, saying that it should be taken up on November 10. Take it permanently and disposed of on the same day.
Azam Khan appealed against his conviction in the Sessions Court itself.
The court had also said that if the conviction is stayed, the disqualification will also be stayed and asked the Election Commission to give reasonable time to Khan to appeal against the conviction.
However, soon after the Rampur sessions court dismissed SP leader Khan’s petition, the Election Commission announced on Thursday that the by-election to the Rampur Sadar assembly seat would be held on December 5.
The commission said the notification for the bypolls will be announced on Friday and the date for filing of final nominations has been extended to November 18. However, the date of voting and counting of votes will remain the same as before, December 5 and December 8 respectively.
It is to be known that on October 27, the MP/MLA court of Rampur in Uttar Pradesh convicted SP leader and MLA Azam Khan for making provocative speeches and sentenced him to three years’ imprisonment. Later he got bail. However, Azam Khan’s membership of the Uttar Pradesh Legislative Assembly was cancelled.
A day later, his assembly seat, Rampur Sadar, was declared vacant by the UP Assembly Secretariat citing his disqualification as an MLA under the Representation of the People Act.
Inciting speech on Azam Khan for using derogatory language against Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath and calling senior officials of the district administration good and bad while addressing a public meeting in Khatanagaria village of Milak Kotwali area during the 2019 Lok Sabha elections. A case was registered for giving
The video of this statement of Khan also went viral.
Special MP/MLA court convicted Azam Khan of Indian Penal Code (IPC) for making provocative speeches, under sections 153A (provoking religious feelings), 505A (false statement with intent to cause feelings of enmity, hatred or enmity between different communities) ) and was sentenced to three years’ imprisonment while being convicted under section 125 (promoting enmity between different classes in connection with the election) of the Representation of the People Act.
Significantly, since the BJP came to power in Uttar Pradesh in 2017, 87 cases ranging from theft to corruption have been registered against Azam Khan.
He was in jail for nearly two years in a land grabbing case. He was released from jail in May this year after getting interim bail from the Supreme Court.
(with input from news agency language)