SC adjourns hearing on plea challenging bail to Tazeen Fatma

IN OCTOBER 2020 THE ALLAHABAD HIGH COURT HAD GRANTED BAIL TO MP AZAM KHAN, HIS WIFE, AND SON IN THE CASE.

NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court adjourned for next week the hearing on the petition filed by the Uttar Pradesh government challenging the bail granted to Dr Tazeen Fatma, wife of Samajwadi Party leader Azam Khan, for allegedly forging her son Abdullah Azam Khan’s birth certificate.

A Bench headed by Chief Justice of India SA Bobde adjourned the case as the Solicitor General was not available.

The Uttar Pradesh government has sought cancellation of bail to Tazeen Fatma in the case related to allegedly forging documents to show under-age son, Abdullah, as a major to enable him to contest the assembly election.

In October 2020 the Allahabad High Court had granted bail to MP Azam Khan, his wife, and son in the case.

Abdullah Azam Khan was elected as an MLA from the Suar seat from Rampur in 2017. He was disqualified from the membership of the State Legislative Assembly for being less than 25 years of age as of the date of the election, in December 2019.

He was found guilty by the Allahabad High Court for submitting a forged birth certificate to the election body to contest elections.

A complaint was lodged by Akash Saxena, a member of Bharatiya Janata Party, alleging that Azam Khan and his wife have got two birth certificates issued from different places, one dated January 28, 2012, from Nagar Palika Parishad, Rampur, and the second dated April 21, 2015, from Nagar Nigam, Lucknow, for their son.

The first birth certificate, which recorded his date of birth as January 1, 1993, was used for making a passport and was misused in foreign travel, the complaint alleged.

While the second birth certificate, which recorded his date of birth as September 30, 1990, was “misused” in government documents, contesting election to Legislative Assembly of the state and in different recognitions given to Jauhar University, it claimed.