Samajwadi Party parliamentarian Mohammad Azam Khan’s son and former SP legislator Abdullah Azam Khan could be debarred from contesting polls for six years for indulging in corrupt practices for his election to UP Assembly in 2017.
The UP Assembly secretariat has written to the President of India in this regard under provisions of Section 8-A of Representation of People’s Act, 1951.
As per procedure laid down in the Constitution, the President will seek opinion of the Election Commission of India and its opinion will be binding on the President.
The Assemble secretariat letter is learnt to have cited a Allahabad High Court order of December 2019, which set aside the election of Abdullah Azam to UP Assembly on the ground of being under age and filing forged birth certificate claiming attainment of 25 years of age.
In December 2019, the Allahabad High Court had set aside Abdullah Azam’s entry to the Assembly.
As per the provisions of Representation of People’s Act, 1951, a candidate has to be of a minimum age of 25 to contest Assembly polls. The Allahabad High Court had ruled that Azam was not qualified to contest the poll as he was below 25 years of age when he filed his nomination as a SP candidate from Swar constituency in 2017.
Abdullah Azam challenged the court order in the Supreme Court on January 17 this year but the apex court refused to stay the High Court order or any other order to protect him from legal action.
Earlier in February this year, the UP Assembly Speaker had disqualified Abdullah Azam from the membership of the House and the seat he represented was declared vacant.
A BJP leader from Rampur, Akash Saxena, had lodged an FIR at Ganj police station in Rampur on January 3, 2019, alleging fraud related to Abdullah’s forged birth certificates, claiming that he had two birth certificates.
In April 2019, the police had filed a chargesheet in the court, alleging that Abdullah also had two passports and two PAN cards.
A case was also registered against Azam Khan and his wife Tazeen Fatma for submitting an affidavit testifying to the authenticity of their son’s second birth certificate.
Azam Khan represents Rampur in the Lok Sabha and his wife is an MLA from the Rampur assembly seat.
In February this year, Azam Khan, his wife and son were sent to judicial custody and are presently lodged in Sitapur jail for the last seven months.