Abdullah Azam Khan Challenges High Court Decision To Annul Election As MLA In Supreme Court

Abdullah Azam Khan, MLA from Rampur's Suar (UP), on Tuesday approached Supreme Court against Allahabad high court order which annulled his election as UP MLA on the ground that he was underage and not qualified to fight the poll in 2017. On Monday, the Allahabad High Court annulled the election of Abdullah Azam, son of SP leader Azam Khan, as an Uttar Pradesh MLA on the ground that he was underage and not qualified to fight the poll in 2017. A bench of Justice S P Kesarwani declared the election of the junior Khan from the Suar assembly segment null and void on a plea by the defeated BSP candidate, Nawab Kazim Ali Khan.

Allowing Kazim Khan's election petition, the bench ruled that Abdullah Azam Khan was not qualified to contest the election of the legislative assembly as he had not yet turned 25 when he filed the nomination papers for the assembly election in 2017.

In his election petition against Abdullah Khan, Kazim Khan had contended that the elected MLA's actual date of birth was January 1, 1993 and not September 30,1990, as claimed in the nomination paper.

Accordingly, he was yet to reach 25 years of age to become eligible to fight the election, when he filed the nomination papers on January 25, 2017, Kazim Khan had contended. Abdullah Khan was elected as MLA from Suar constituency of Rampur district in Uttar Pradesh on a Samajwadi Party ticket on March 11, 2017.

The unsuccessful Bahujan Samaj Party candidate from the Suar assembly segment, Kazim Khan, had further pointed out in his election petition that educational certificates, passport and visa of Abdullah Khan mentioned January 1, 1993 as his date of birth.

But in his nomination papers, Abdullah Khan had mentioned September 30, 1990 as his birth date on the basis of a certificate from Lucknow's Birth and Death registrar.

The bench unseated the Suar MLA after examining the entire facts as borne out of various documents, including the service record of Abdullah Khan's mother. It too had mentioned January 1, 1993 as his date of birth.