Don’t issue Rampur bypoll notification till Nov 11: Top court to EC
NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Wednesday gave Samajwadi Party leader Mohammad Azam Khan an opportunity to salvage his Rampur assembly seat by arranging a fast-track hearing on his application for stay of conviction before a Rampur court on Thursday, and ordered the Election Commission to hold back the gazette notification on the Rampur by-election for a day.
If Khan gets an order of stay, he will remain in contention to contest for the upcoming bypoll to the Rampur seat on December 5.
A bench headed by Chief Justice of India (CJI) Dhananjaya Y Chandrachud said, “The Additional Sessions Judge, Rampur shall prepone hearing on stay of conviction from November 15 and take it up on November 10. The application shall be disposed on the same day.”
The bench, also comprising justices Hima Kohli and JB Pardiwala, added: “The issuance of Gazette notification for declaring the election schedule for Rampur constituency may be issued on or after November 11, depending on the outcome of the application on stay of conviction.” The bench clarified, “In the event he (Khan) fails, EC can proceed with issuance of notification.”
The court passed the order in the interest of providing “fair process” to the petitioner (Khan), who was denied an opportunity to appeal to the sessions court against his conviction.
Khan was convicted and sentenced to three years in prison in a 2019 hate speech case on October 27.
The next day, the secretariat of UP assembly declared his seat vacant. On November 5, EC announced the schedule for by-election to several assembly seats including Rampur.
On Monday, when Khan’s petition was first heard by the top court, his lawyer, senior advocate P Chidambaram, raised the plea of discrimination to suggest that the assembly seat of Khatauli falling in the same state where the sitting BJP MLA stood convicted and sentenced to two years imprisonment in the 2013 Muzaffarnagar riots case.
Welcoming the order, Samajwadi Party spokesperson Abdul Hafiz Gandhi said: “Today’s SC’s directive to EC is sort of a relief as it gave at least some time to appeal against the conviction... The speed with which the Speaker of Vidhan declared the seat vacant and the alacrity with which EC announced the bypoll to Rampur seat point how an opposition party leader can be victimised...”
Later, the Election Commission said it will not issue the notification for Rampur bypoll in view of the SC order.