Hindustan Times ST (Mumbai) - Live
Azam seat declared ‘vacant’ after his conviction in ’19 case
LUCKNOW: The Uttar Pradesh legislative assembly on Friday declared the Rampur seat, held by Samajwadi Party leader Azam Khan, vacant, indicating that he was disqualified from the House after being convicted in a 2019 hate speech case a day ago.
The MP/MLA court in Rampur on Thursday found Khan guilty of hate speech during the 2019 general election campaign, sentenced him to three years in jail and fined him ₹25,000 in connection with the matter. He was, however, granted bail later and given seven days to file an appeal against the verdict.
A senior officer of the state assembly said Khan automatically stood disqualified when his prison sentence exceeded two years. “A vacancy has been declared by the UP Vidhan Sabha Secretariat consequent upon the disqualification due to the judgment passed by the court,” principal secretary of the UP legislative assembly Pradeep Dubey told news agency PTI.
“We do not disqualify (a sitting member), we only declare vacancy (of the respective seat). Disqualification had already been done by the court order,” he added.
As per a 2013 Supreme Court judgment, members of Parliament and state assemblies will be immediately disqualified if convicted in a criminal case and sentenced to more than two years in jail. The court passed the order while striking down Section 8 (4) of the Representation of the People Act, 1951, which protected members from disqualification if they appealed before a higher court within three months.
HT tried to reach Khan for a comment but couldn’t get a response till the time of going to print. The SP, however, called the move an “evidence of dictatorship”.
“The Vidhan Sabha speaker Satish Mahana has succumbed to pressure... This is evidence of dictatorship in the so-called democracy that (he) was not given time for an appeal. Now one can’t get justice in the country”, said senior Samajwadi Party leader IP Singh in a tweet in Hindi.
Khan is a 10-time MLA from Rampur. This is the first time the senior leader has been convicted.