Advance Azam hearing, defer poll order, SC tells court, EC

New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Wednesday asked the Election Commission to defer issuance of notification for bypoll to Rampur assembly constituency till Friday to enable SP leader Azam Khan, whose conviction and sentence for three years in a criminal case led to his disqualification and the seat being declared vacant, a fair chance to seek stay of conviction and continue as MLA.

- Dhananjay.Mahapatra timesgroup.com

A bench of Chief Justice D Y Chandrachud and Justices Hima Kohli and J B Pardiwala disagreed with EC counsel Arvind Datar's argument that once the conviction and sentence of more than two years is passed by a court, the disqualification is automatic. He said even if an appellate court stayed the conviction, it would only enable the person to contest the by-election. He said that the EC is bound to announce election schedule within a week of the legislative assembly declaring the seat vacant, which in case of Rampur was done a day after a trial court convicted Khan on October 27.