The Allahabad High Court on Thursday suspended the sentence of former Uttar Pradesh minister Mohd. Azam Khan and his son, former MLA Abdullah Azam Khan, in the alleged dual PAN card case and granted them bail, Live Law reported.
Source: Live Law
A single-judge bench of Justice Samit Gopal passed the order on their applications seeking suspension of sentence, IANS reported. The court had reserved its judgment on October 15 after hearing senior advocates Abhishek Manu Singhvi and N.I. Jafri for the father and son, and senior advocate Anoop Trivedi for the State, according to Live Law.
Crucially, the High Court declined their plea to stay the conviction itself, IANS and India Legal Live reported. That distinction matters: suspension of sentence lets a convicted person remain out on bail while a challenge is pending, but because the conviction has not been stayed, it remains in force — and, as legal reports noted, the electoral disqualification arising from it is not removed by bail alone.
Live Law said the father and son are likely to walk out of jail following the order. IANS, however, noted that their actual release will depend on the legal position in other pending cases against them.
The case
Azam Khan and Abdullah Azam Khan had filed criminal revision petitions in the High Court challenging their convictions and sentences in the alleged two-PAN-card case. In November last year, a Rampur court — Additional Chief Judicial Magistrate Shobit Bansal — found them guilty under Sections 467, 468, 420, 471 and 120-B of the Indian Penal Code, for forgery, cheating, using forged documents and criminal conspiracy, Live Law reported.
The case stems from an FIR lodged in 2019 by BJP leader Akash Saxena, now an MLA, alleging — as an allegation, not a court finding beyond the trial court's verdict now under challenge — that Abdullah had used two PAN cards carrying different dates of birth and gained undue benefits through their use.
According to the prosecution's case as reported by Live Law, Abdullah first obtained a PAN card showing January 1, 1993 as his date of birth, matching his school and high-school certificates, and that PAN was used to operate a bank account and file income-tax returns. It was further alleged that, to contest the 2017 Assembly elections, Abdullah altered his bank passbook and PAN details — the second PAN recording September 30, 1990 — so that he would appear to meet the minimum age of 25, and that he did so in conspiracy with his father. The prosecution also claimed the bank account named in the nomination papers was neither linked to nor operated through the second PAN.
The revision petitions will now be heard separately on the challenge to the conviction itself. Thursday's order gives the Samajwadi Party leaders interim relief on sentence and bail, but leaves the central legal question — and their ability to contest elections — untouched until the court decides the revisions or stays the conviction.