Azam Khan disqualified from Uttar Pradesh assembly

LUCKNOW: UP Assembly on Friday issued a notification declaring Rampur assembly seats as vacant, a day after its MLA, senior SP leader Azam Khan, was sentenced by an MP/MLA court to three years' imprisonment in a 2019 hate speech case . The development paves way for a bypoll in Rampur assembly constituency which Khan won in 2022 assembly elections after vacating Rampur Lok Sabha seat.Principal secretary, Vidhan Sabha, Pradeep Dubey, issued the notification on Friday. It cited the Rampur MP/MLA court's order and added that in the light of the Supreme Court's order passed in 2013, Azam was not eligible to be a member of UP assembly after October 27, 2022. Azam had won the Rampur seat for the 10th time in the assembly polls held early this year.Sources said that the decision was taken immediately after the state government, through UP chief secretary DS Mishra, made a formal communication to the Vidhan Sabha secretariat vis-à-vis disqualification of the SP law maker.In the light of 2013 Supreme Court order, Khan will not get three months’ period to prevent his disqualification while appealing in the higher court against the MP/MLA court's verdict. The July 2013 order ruled that any MP, MLA or MLC convicted of a crime and given a minimum of two years' imprisonment, would lose the membership of the House with immediate effect, without being given three months’ time for appeal, as was the case before.The SC order was delivered by justices AK Patnaik and SJ Mukhopadhyay, who struck down as unconstitutional Section 8(4) of the Representation of the People Act (RPA) that allowed convicted lawmakers a three-month period for appealing to the higher court and getting a stay. The apex court had delivered the judgement following writ petitions filed by advocate Lily Thomas and Lok Prahari.Section 8 of the RPA deals with disqualification on conviction for certain offences: A person convicted of any offence and sentenced to imprisonment for varying terms under sections 8 (1) (2) and (3) shall be disqualified from the date of conviction and shall continue to be disqualified for a further period of six years since his/her release. Khan (74), who faces three years of imprisonment, will thus not be able to contest any election for a period of nine years.“He may approach the higher court against the conviction by the MP/MLA court but that won’t save him from losing his current membership," experts said. However, if Azam gets a stay order from the higher court against his conviction, he would be able to contest election. “This would, however, be a long-drawn process,” an official source said.A case was registered against Khan at Milak Kotwali on April 9, 2019 for giving provocative speeches against top BJP leaders, including CM Yogi Adityanath and then Rampur DM Aunjaneya Kumar Singh. Khan was booked under IPC sections 153-A (promoting enmity) and 505-1 (public mischief), and Section 125 of the RPA-1951.