SC dismisses review plea by Azam Khan's son on order cancelling MLA election [Read Order]

NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court has declined to review its November 7, 2022 judgement which dismissed an appeal by Abdullah Azam Khan, son of senior Samajwadi Party leader Azam Khan against the Allahabad High Court's order cancelling his 2017 election as an MLA from Suar constituency.

The top court, however, clarified that the criminal cases arising out alleged forgery of birth certificate would decided on its own merits.

A bench of Justices Ajay Rastogi and B V Nagarathna said, "We have perused the review petitions as well as the connected papers in support thereof and find no manifest apparent error on the face of record. In our opinion, no case for review is made out."

The bench, however, made it clear that what has been observed by this court is with reference to the Election Petition assailing the election of the returned candidate (Mohammad Abdullah Azam Khan) from 34, Suar Assembly Constituency of District Rampur.

"The result of the election was declared on 11thl March, 2017 and the criminal cases, if any,pending in reference to the selfsame subject may be decided on its own merits," the bench added.

The court rejected the plea for open court hearing in the matter.

The review petition is examined by the judges inside the chambers by circulation of papers as per the Supreme Court Rules.

In its judgement on November 7, 2022, the top court noted the High Court had rightly found Khan below the minimum 25 years of age at the time of filing his nomination.

He, however, subsequently had got re-elected in 2022 from the same constituency.

The court had also pointed out all throughout, the date of birth of the Khan in records is January one, 1993.

However, in 2015 when he became keen to enter into active politics, his mother submitted an application for the first time on January 17, 2015, claiming that the appellant was born on September 30, 1990. Within three days, birth certificate was issued by the Nagar Nigam, Lucknow on January 21, 2015, which was full of "discrepancies, overwriting and factual inaccuracies".

In her separate judgement, Justice Nagarathna said no weight can be placed on the birth certificate, issued by the Nagar Nigam, Lucknow in 2015, on the strength of an entry made in the birth register maintained by the hospital and "is created by manipulation and interpolation in the relevant hospital records."

The court also noted Khan got passport issued in his name with January 1, 1993 as his date of birth and travelled several countries with it.

The court had also rejected an ossification test which mentioned his age as 26 years, saying it cannot be accepted as conclusive proof and did not hold much water.

Khan was on March 11, 2017  elected from Suar constituency on Samajwadi Party ticket.

Congress party candidate Nawab Kazim Ali Khan challenged the election on the ground that the winning candidate was not qualified to contest as he was less than 25 years of age as his date of birth was mentioned as on January 1, 1993 in Class X and all other educational certificates.

[Read Order]