Bareilly: Samajwadi Party leader Azam Khan on Wednesday filed an appeal in the Rampur district and sessions court challenging the order convicting him in a hate speech case, which led to his disqualification as an MLA.
The Supreme Court during the day directed the lower court to hear and decide on Thursday itself the appeal of Khan seeking a stay on his conviction.
The Rampur MP/MLA court had on October 27 sentenced Khan to three years of imprisonment in the hate speech case of 2019.
Following his conviction, he was disqualified as a member of the Uttar Pradesh Assembly under provisions of the Representation of the People Act.
The Assembly secretariat had subsequently declared his Rampur Sadar seat vacant.
The Election Commission has already announced bypoll in the Rampur Sadar constituency along with some other assembly seats and the Mainpuri Lok Sabha seat on December 5.
The Supreme Court during the day directed the Election Commission not to issue till November 10 the notification for the assembly bypoll in the Rampur Sadar seat.
The Supreme Court said the Election Commission can issue the notification for the bypoll on or after November 11 once the sessions court decides on Khan's plea.
The Rampur district and sessions court, while admitting Khan's appeal, granted him interim bail in the case till November 16, the SP leader's lawyer Vinod Sharma said.
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