Samajwadi Party MLA Abdullah Azam Khan has been disqualified from the Uttar Pradesh Assembly on Wednesday after a court sentenced him a two year jail term in a 15-year-old case.
This is the second time that Khan has been disqualified and it comes just months after he and his father, senior Samajwadi Party leader Azam Khan was disqualified from the legislature after the latter’s conviction in a hate speech case.
Khan’s seat has been declared vacant from February 13. He represented Suar in Rampur district in the Assembly.
The Moradabad court sentenced the father-son duo to two years in jail for using criminal force to deter public servant from doing his duty after they staged 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 charges are under section 353 of the Indian Penal Court. The court has, however, granted bail to both of them.
According to the Representation of the People Act, any legislator who has been sentenced to imprisonment for two years or more will be disqualified “from the date of such conviction” and remain disqualified for another six years after serving time in jail.
This is not the first time Khan has been disqualified. In 2020, 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.
Not just him, his father also face disqualification in October last year after court sentenced him to three years in jail in a hate speech case.
With PTI inputs
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