The Supreme Court has requested the Allahabad High Court to decide as early as possible on the plea of Mohammad Abdullah Azam Khan, the son of disqualified Samajwadi Party MLA Azam Khan. Abdullah Khan is seeking a stay of his conviction in a matter related to a protest in 2008. He claims to have been a juvenile at the time of the incident and has challenged the Allahabad High Court order dated March 17. The Supreme Court bench, consisting of justices KM Joseph and BV Nagarathna, requested the Allahabad HC to hear the matter on April 10 and decide the application for stay as early as possible. Khan was disqualified from the Uttar Pradesh Legislative Assembly after he was convicted and sentenced to two years imprisonment in the 15-year-old case.
After the trial court convicted Mohammad Abdullah Azam Khan on February 13, 2023, the Uttar Pradesh Legislative Assembly’s Assembly Secretariat notified on February 15 that the Constituency seat of Suar in Rampur district had become vacant. This was because Khan, who was representing the Suar constituency in the Assembly, was disqualified after his conviction and two-year imprisonment sentence in a 15-year-old case. Mohammad Abdullah Azam Khan filed a petition in which he expressed concern that if the by-election to the Rampur Constituency is announced during the pendency of his application before the High Court, and the High Court passes a stay order thereafter, the stay order would be rendered moot due to the announcement of the by-elections. He made this statement in the context of his plea seeking a stay on his conviction in a case related to a protest in 2008, which resulted in his disqualification as a member of the Uttar Pradesh Legislative Assembly.
