Forged Birth Certificate: Supreme Court seeks UP govt's reply on pleas of Azam Khan's wife, son

The Bench of Chief Justice B R Gavai, Justices Satish Chandra Sharma and K Vinod Chandran, while hearing the matter, asked Advocate Nizam Pasha, counsel for the petitioners, to clarify how the apex court could stay the conviction.

“The stay of conviction has to be done in rare cases. Usually, it is the suspension of sentence that is granted,” CJI Gavai observed.

The pleas challenge the Allahabad High Court’s October 2023 order that had suspended the sentence imposed by a Rampur trial court but refused to stay the conviction. This refusal effectively upheld their disqualification under Section 8(3) of the Representation of the People Act, 1951, which bars convicted persons from contesting elections.

Fatma and Abdullah Azam argued that the refusal has caused “far-reaching and irreversible consequences” for their political careers and public standing. They termed the high court’s reasoning “erroneous and unsustainable,” pointing out that the court itself had noted the absence of material evidence proving forgery in the 2015 birth certificate issued by the Lucknow Municipal Corporation.

The case originated from a December 2018 FIR lodged at Rampur’s Ganj police station on the complaint of BJP leader Akash Saxena, alleging that Azam Khan and his wife procured two separate birth certificates for their son.

The first certificate, issued in 2012 by the Rampur Municipal Corporation, listed Rampur as the place of birth based on affidavits by the parents. The second, issued in 2015 by the Lucknow Municipal Corporation, cited hospital records from Queen Mary’s Hospital, Lucknow, listing Lucknow as the place of birth.

A chargesheet was filed in April 2019 under Sections 420, 467, 468, and 471 IPC, followed by a supplementary chargesheet under Section 120-B IPC in 2021. The Rampur trial court convicted Fatma, Azam Khan, and Abdullah Azam in October 2023, sentencing them under various provisions.

Their appeals remain pending, but the conviction continues to bar Fatma from contesting elections or holding trust positions.

In a related news, in May, the Allahabad High Court had granted relief to Azam Khan in the fake birth certificate case by staying his conviction. However, the court did not stay the conviction of his wife, Tanzeen Fatima, and son, Abdullah Azam, though their pleas for suspension of sentence were allowed and they were granted bail.