Samajwadi Party (SP) leader Azam Khan was on Friday disqualified as an MLA of the Uttar Pradesh Assembly, a day after he was convicted in a hate speech case. UP Assembly Principal Secretary Pradeep Dubey said that the Assembly Secretariat declared the Rampur Sadar assembly seat represented by Khan vacant.
“A vacancy has been announced by the UP Vidhan Sabha Secretariat as a result of disqualification due to the judgment passed by the court,” he said.
Khan was on Thursday sentenced to three years in jail by a special MP/MLA court in Rampur in a 2019 hate speech case. The case was related to Khan’s alleged “inflammatory remarks” against UP Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath and then DM IAS Anjaneya Kumar Singh.
The court also imposed a fine of Rs 2,000 on Khan and two others. The court on Thursday granted bail to Khan in the case besides giving him time to file an appeal against the sentence.
In Milak Kotwali, a case has been registered against the senior SP leader under IPC sections 153A (promoting enmity between two groups), 505-1 (statements to public mischief) as well as section 125 of the Representation of the People Act, 1951 was.
Earlier in the day, BJP leader Akhan Saxena from Rampur urged Election commission India To disqualify Khan as MLA in view of the court’s decision. Saxena had lost to Khan from Rampur Sadar seat in this year’s assembly elections.
“Mohammed Azam Khan (from Rampur) is the sitting MLA. As per the provisions of the Representation of the People Act, if a public representative is sentenced by a court to two years’ imprisonment, there are provisions that the membership of that public representative will be terminated,” Saxena told PTI from Rampur.
The Representation of the People Act states that any person sentenced to two years or more shall be disqualified “from the date of such conviction” and shall be disqualified for six years after serving time in prison.
(with PTI inputs)
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