SC upholds setting aside of 2017 election of Abdullah Azam Khan from UP Assembly

The Supreme Court on Monday rejected a plea challenging an order of the Allahabad High Court setting aside the election of Mohammad Abdullah Azam Khan, son of Samajwadi Party leader Azam Khan, to the Uttar Pradesh Assembly in 2017.

“We have dismissed (the plea),” said a bench of Justices Ajay Rastogi and B V Nagarathna while pronouncing the verdict on Abdullah Azam’s plea against the high court order.

The top court had reserved order on the issue on September 20.

In December 2019, the Allahabad High Court had ruled that Abdullah Azam was not qualified to contest the election as he was below 25 years of age when he filed his nomination papers as the SP candidate from Suar constituency in 2017.

The case relates to the existence of two birth certificates of Abdullah Azam, who allegedly gave a wrong date of birth while filing his nomination papers for the 2017 poll.

Rampur BJP leader Akash Saxena had lodged an FIR at Ganj police station on January 3, 2019 alleging fraud in securing two birth certificates with different dates. In April, police had filed the charge sheet in the case.

Azam Khan and his wife were sent to jail by a Rampur court in Uttar Pradesh for their alleged role in securing a fake birth certificate for Abdullah Azam on the basis of which he had contested the election.

According to the charge sheet, in one birth certificate, issued by the Rampur municipality, Abdullah Azam’s date of birth was mentioned as January 1, 1993. The other certificate said he was born in Lucknow on September 30, 1990.

Abdullah Azam had won from Suar assembly in 2017, but was unseated by the high court for being underage. He was again elected from the constituency in the assembly polls held in 2022.