New Delhi: Supreme Court on Thursday dismissed pleas of Uttar Pradesh government challenging the bail granted to Samajwadi Party MP Azam Khan, his wife Dr Tanzeen Fathima, and son Abdullah Azam Khan in an alleged case of forging birth certificate.
“The special leave petitions are dismissed. We make it clear that any observation made in the impugned order shall have no bearing in trial since it was only with regard to granting bail. Pending applications stand disposed of,” said the order passed by the bench headed by Justice Ashok Bhushan.
Uttar Pradesh government has sought cancellation of bail to Tanzeen Fathima in the case related to allegedly forging documents to show under-age son, Abdullah, as a major to enable him to contest the assembly election.
In October 2020, the Allahabad High Court had granted bail to MP Azam Khan, his wife and son in the case.
Abdullah Azam Khan was elected as an MLA from Suar seat from Rampur, Uttar Pradesh in 2017. He was disqualified from the membership of the State Legislative Assembly for being less than 25 years of age as on the date of the election, in December 2019.
He was found guilty by the Allahabad High Court for submitting a forged birth certificate to the election body to contest elections.
A complaint was lodged by Akash Saxena, a member of Bharatiya Janata Party, alleging that Azam Khan and his wife have got two birth certificates issued from different places, one dated January 28, 2012, from Nagar Palika Parishad, Rampur, and the second dated April 21, 2015, from Nagar Nigam, Lucknow, for their son.
The first birth certificate, which recorded his date of birth as January 1, 1993, was used for making passport, etc and was misused in foreign travel, the complainant alleged. While the second birth certificate, which recorded his date of birth as September 30, 1990, was “misused” in government documents for contesting election to Legislative Assembly of the state and in different recognitions given to Jauhar University, it claimed.