The Uttar Pradesh Legislative Assembly Secretariat on Friday announced the disqualification of Samajwadi Party leader Azam Khan from the House, a day after a court sentenced him to three years in jail in a hate speech case.
Principal Secretary of the UP Legislative Assembly, Pradeep Dubey told PTI that the assembly secretariat has declared the Rampur Sadar Assembly seat as vacant. “A vacancy has been declared by the UP Vidhan Sabha Secretariat consequent upon the disqualification due to the judgment passed by the court,” he said.
The Rampur MP-MLA court had on Thursday convicted Khan in a 2019 hate speech case and sentenced him to three years of imprisonment.
With the latest development, will Rampur see bypolls next? Or can Azam Khan reverse his disqualification? News18 explains:
Automatic Disqualification, and 2013 SC Order
According to a report by Indian Expresssources in the Assembly said Khan was automatically disqualified after being sentenced for more than two years. “The Election Commission has also been notified about the vacancy,” an official said.
Meanwhile, Dubey clarified that the state assembly did not disqualify sitting members. “We do not disqualify (a sitting member), we only declare vacancy (of the respective seat). Disqualification had already been done by the court order,” he said.
While Khan requested eight days to file an appeal in a higher court against the verdict, which was granted, according to a July 2013 Supreme Court order, an appeal does not prevent the disqualification of an MP or MLA convicted in a case resulting in a sentence of more than two years.
The Supreme Court order, which stated that MPs and MLAs would be disqualified immediately if convicted in a criminal case and sentenced to more than two years, overturned Section 8 (4) of the Representation of the People Act, 1951, which protected them from disqualification if they filed an appeal within three months.
According to the Representation of the People Act, anyone sentenced to two years or more in prison is disqualified “from the date of such conviction” and remains disqualified for another six years after serving time in prison.
“After conviction by the trial court and pronouncement of prison term of two years or more, an MLA or MP loses membership of the state assembly or Parliament as the case may be,” Gyan Singh Chauhan, senior advocate of the Lucknow bench of the Allahabad high court told the Hindustan Times.
In a similar case in November 2021, BJP MLA Indra Pratap alias ‘Khabbu Tiwari’ from Ayodhya’s Gosaiganj constituency was disqualified after a special court sentenced him to five years in a 29-year-old fake marksheet case.
Legal Recourse, What SP Says
The SP has called the move “evidence of dictatorship.” IP Singh, a senior SP leader and former UP minister said Vidhan Sabha Speaker Satish Mahana had “buckled under pressure.”
“In a hurry, he decided to cancel the membership of ten-time MLA Azam Khan saheb. That (he) was not given time to file an appeal is evidence of dictatorship in the so-called democracy. “You can’t get justice in this country anymore,” he said.
And Azam Khan is unlikely to receive relief from a higher court, Professor SK Dwivedi, former head of department of political science at Lucknow University told Hindustan Times. If a leader is disqualified following conviction, the state assembly declares a vacancy, and legal experts will decide on the next course of action if his conviction is overturned by a higher court, he added.
What is the Case Against Azam?
The case was registered against Khan in April 2019 for levelling serious allegations against administrative officials posted in Rampur, Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath during an election meeting.
During the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, Khan was booked for making inflammatory speeches while addressing a public meeting in Khatanagaria village of the Milak Kotwali area. A video of Khan’s statement also surfaced on social media. Khan was released from jail earlier this year after the Supreme Court granted him an interim bail in a cheating case. He spent nearly two years in jail.
The SP leader faces nearly 90 cases, including that of corruption and theft.
He had won from the Rampur Sadar Assembly seat in the UP Assembly polls for a record 10th time. After becoming an MLA, he resigned from the Lok Sabha. In June this year, BJP’s Ghanshyam Lodhi wrested the Rampur parliamentary seat from the Samajwadi Party, defeating his nearest rival by over 42,000 votes in a bypoll.
Lodhi had defeated SP candidate Mohd Asim Raja, considered close to party leader Azam Khan, who had won from the constituency in 2019. The bypoll was necessitated by the resignation of Azam Khan following his election to the Uttar Pradesh Assembly.
With inputs from PTI
Read all the Latest Explainers here