[Azam Khan] Allahabad High Court bail condition directing DM to take possession of Jauhar University property stayed by Supreme Court

The Supreme Court on Friday stayed the direction by the Allahabad high Court to the District Magistrate to take over possession of the property attached to Jauhar University, as part of the interim bail conditions imposed on senior Samajwadi Party leader Azam Khan [Azam Khan v State of Uttar Pradesh]..A Bench of Justices DY Chandrachud and Bela M Trivedi was informed that the High Court had ordered for "demolition" of the University of which Khan is Chancellor, and that the district administration sought to execute the same.The Bench opined that prima facie, the bail condition is disproportionate and exceeded the parameters for granting bail under Section 439 of the Code of Criminal Procedure. "Prima facie conditions imposed for grant of bail are disproportionate and has no reasonable link to the means to secure presence of accused. Para 40 of the High Court order has stated that order may look like a decree in a civil suit yet the High Court while imposing conditions for grant of bail has exceeded the settled parameters laid down in Section 439 of the Criminal Procedure Code. Issue notice. Till next date of listing the High Court direction in para 39 (1) of its impugned order shall remain stayed," the top court ordered..On May 10, the Allahabad High Court, while granting interim bail to Khan in a case of alleged grabbing of an opponent's property, had directed the Rampur District Magistrate to take possession of the property attached to the campus of Jauhar University by June 30, 2022, and raise a boundary wall with barbed wire around it.The High Court had also imposed a condition that Khan has to return the entire enemy property to paramilitary forces and furnish a personal bond of ₹1 lakh and two sureties of like amount.It had said that on completion of the mentioned exercise of taking the possession of the land, the interim bail granted to Azam Khan shall be converted into regular bail..Senior Advocate Kapil Sibal, appearing for Khan before the Supreme Court, submitted that the status of the land on which the University is built is the subject matter of a writ petition in the High Court between the Waqf Board and the custodian of the land. A stay has been ordered on said petition, he said. He argued that despite this, the single-judge had ordered to handover the land to the custodian as a condition for bail..Until he was granted interim bail recently, Khan had been languishing in jail since February 2020, facing nearly a 100 criminal cases ranging from buffalo and goat theft to land-grabbing and electricity theft.Despite the Allahabad High Court having granted him bail in multiple cases, Khan was lodged at the Sitapur Jail, as orders in other bail applications by him had been reserved but not pronounced yet.In February, the Supreme Court had refused to entertain a plea filed by Khan seeking interim bail to campaign for the upcoming Uttar Pradesh assembly elections. The top court had also asked Khan's counsel to first approach the High Court for bail.The bail pleas filed through advocate Lzafeer Ahmad BF stated that Khan has secured bail in 84 of the 87 allegedly politically-motivated cases filed against him.Earlier this month, the Supreme Court took exception to new complaints propping up against the veteran Samajwadi Party leader every time he was granted bail by courts.Subsequently, on May 19, the Supreme Court granted Khan interim bail in an alleged cheating case paving way for his release from prison..Follow Bar and Bench channel on WhatsAppDownload the Bar and Bench Mobile app for instant access to the latest legal news.