Allahabad HC refuses to stay conviction of Abdullah Azam Khan

Prayagraj: The Allahabad High Court on Thursday refused to stay the conviction of Mohammad Abdullah Azam Khan, son of Samajwadi Party leader Azam Khan, in a 2008 criminal case, saying the applicant is trying to seek relief on "absolutely non-existent grounds".

In February, Abdullah Azam Khan was awarded two years of imprisonment in the case by a Moradabad court, which led to his disqualification as MLA.

Rejecting his application, Justice Rajiv Gupta observed, “In fact, the applicant is trying to seek stay of his conviction on absolutely non-existent grounds. It is a well settled principle of law that stay of conviction is not a rule but an exception to be resorted to in rare cases." "Disqualification is not limited only to MPs/MLAs. Moreover, as many as 46 criminal cases are pending against the applicant. It is now the need of the hour to have purity in politics. Representatives of people should be men of clear antecedents,” the court observed.

“In the backdrop of the said circumstances, refusal to stay the conviction would not, in any way, result in injustice to the applicant. The order under challenge passed by the Moradabad court is just proper and legal and do not call for any interference,” it said.

A criminal case was registered in 2008 against Abdullah Azam Khan and his father Azam Khan at Chhajlet police station in Moradabad under sections 341 (wrongful restraint) and 353 (assault or criminal force to deter public servant from discharge of his duty) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC).

It is alleged that they had blocked traffic after their vehicle was stopped by the police for checking in Moradabad.

The additional chief judicial magistrate (ACJM) on February 13, 2023 sentenced Azam Khan and his son Abdullah Azam Khan to two years of imprisonment and also imposed a fine of Rs 3,000 each.

Later, they were granted bail after submitting the required surety.

Two days after the conviction and sentence, Abdullah Azam Khan, an SP MLA, was disqualified from the Uttar Pradesh Legislative Assembly. He represented the Suar assembly constituency of Rampur.