SC notice to UP govt on plea of disqualified MLA Abdullah Khan in criminal case

The Supreme Court on Monday sought the stand of the Uttar Pradesh government on a plea by Mohammad Abdullah Azam Khan son of Samajwadi Party leader Azam Khan against the Allahabad High Court decision refusing to stay his conviction in a 15yearold criminal case that led to his disqualification as an MLAA bench of Justices Ajay Rastogi and Bela M Trivedi issued notice to the UP government and sought its replyThe top court also clarified that the election to Suar assembly constituency which fell vacant after Khans disqualification scheduled for May 10 shall be subject to the outcome of his petitionLet the counter be filed Let the election to be held on May 10 be subject to the outcome of this special leave petition the bench said while posting the matter for hearing in second week of JulyDuring the hearing the bench asked Additional Solicitor General KM Nataraj appearing for the UP government Can we test the morality of an individual convicted and sentenced Can he not be an elected representative If you are able to justify if it makes him unfit to be a public representative You have to demonstrate prima facie that he has done a crime in his own capacityAlso Read Uttar Pradesh SP leader five others booked for trying to disrobe womanThe ASG said he will file his response to the appealSenior advocate Kapil Sibal appearing for Khan claimed his client was a juvenile when the incident took placeThe apex court clarified it was not examining Khans juvenility and looking at his prayer seeking stay on convictionKhan had approached the apex court against the April 13 order of the Allahabad high court which had refused to stay his convictionIn February Abdullah Azam Khan was awarded two years imprisonment in the case by a Moradabad court which led to his disqualification as MLARejecting his application the high court had observed In fact the applicant is trying to seek stay of his conviction on absolutely nonexistent grounds It is a well settled principle of law that stay of conviction is not a rule but an exception to be resorted to in rare casesDisqualification is not limited only to MPsMLAs Moreover as many as 46 criminal cases are pending against the applicant It is now the need of the hour to have purity in politics Representatives of people should be men of clear antecedents the court had observedA criminal case was registered in 2008 against Abdullah Azam Khan and his father Azam Khan at Chhajlet police station in Moradabad under sections 341 wrongful restraint and 353 assault or criminal force to deter public servant from discharge of his duty of the Indian Penal Code IPCIt was alleged they had blocked traffic after their vehicle was stopped by the police for checkingThe additional chief judicial magistrate ACJM sentenced the fatherson duo to two years imprisonment and also imposed a fine of Rs 3000 each on February 13 2023They were later enlarged on bailTwo days after the conviction and sentence Abdullah Azam Khan an SP MLA was disqualified from the Uttar Pradesh Legislative AssemblyThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever