SC refuses to transfer pending criminal cases against Azam Khan outside Uttar Pradesh

New Delhi, Jan 4 (PTI) The Supreme Court on Wednesday refused to transfer criminal cases against Samajwadi Party leader Azam Khan, pending in a Rampur special court, outside Uttar Pradesh on the ground of alleged “persecution”.

A bench comprising Chief Justice D Y Chandrachud and Justices SA Nazeer and PS Narasimha said it needed more cogent reasons for transferring the ongoing criminal cases against Khan.

The top court, however, allowed Khan to move the Allahabad High Court with the plea for shifting the trial in criminal cases outside Rampur district in the state.

“When we transfer (a case), we need far more cogent reasons for the transfer. Sorry. We are giving you the liberty to approach the Allahabad High Court,” the bench said.

“I will not get justice in the state. I am being persecuted… It is not a judge… It is the state. Everywhere, the situation will be the same inside the state,” senior advocate Kapil Sibal, appearing for Khan, remonstrated.

The senior lawyer claimed he will not get a fair trial in the state and, to buttress his charge of bias, he referred to Khan’s conviction in a case even when he had challenged an interim order of the lower court and his appeal was pending in the high court.

The case pertained to alleged fabrication of birth certificate of Khan’s son and the plea in the high court was pending when he was convicted by the trial court.

On November 7 last year, the top court had rejected a plea challenging the 2019 order of the Allahabad High Court that set aside the election of Mohammad Abdullah Azam Khan, son of Azam Khan, to the Uttar Pradesh Assembly in 2017.

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

The high court had ruled that he 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 the Suar constituency in 2017.

Sibal’s repeated requests for shifting the cases against Azam Khan outside UP notwithstanding, the Supreme Court bench on Wednesday remained unimpressed and refused to entertain his plea. It asked the Samajwadi Party veteran to move the high court instead.

Khan was recently convicted in a criminal case related to hate speech and disqualified as an MLA.