Azam Khan, the leader of the Samajwadi Party, filed a petition against his disqualification from the state assembly on Monday after being convicted and jailed for three years for hate speech. The Supreme Court asked the Uttar Pradesh government and the Election Commission of India for a response.
Khan’s petition will be served on the Election Commission’s standing counsel by Justices DY Chandrachud and Hima Kohli. Additional Advocate General Garima Prashad has been asked to file her response to Khan’s plea.
“Why did you disqualify him in such a hurry?” “At least allow him some breathing room,” the bench told Prashad after she said that the disqualification was following a directive from the top court.
Senior advocate P Chidambaram, representing Khan, BJP MLA Vikram Saini from Khatauli in Muzzaffarnagar district was also found guilty on October 11 and sentenced to two years. Still, no decision has been made regarding his disqualification.
ECI will issue a gazette notification on November 10 announcing bypoll for the Rampur Sadar seat, which is urgent in this matter.
Even though the Sessions Court judge was on leave for a few days and the High Court was closed, he could not appeal his conviction to the High Court.
When asked why no action had been taken in the case of the Khatauli assembly seat, Prasad replied that no action had been taken. The matter was scheduled for a hearing on November 13, and Prashad was asked to seek instructions and respond.
Rampur court convicted Khan in a hate speech case on October 27 and sentenced him to three years in jail.
MLA Rampur has also been granted bail in the 2019 case handled by the MP-MLA court. The Uttar Pradesh Legislative Assembly Secretary announced Khan’s disqualification on October 28, just one day after a court sentenced him to three years in prison for hate speech.
It was reported that the Assembly Secretariat declared the Rampur Sadar Assembly seat vacant and the Principal Secretary of the UP Legislative Assembly.
