[BREAKING] Supreme Court upholds disqualification of SP leader Abdullah Azam Khan for discrepancy in date of birth

The Supreme Court on Monday upheld an order of the Allahabad High Court disqualifying Samajwadi Party (SP) leader Abdullah Azam Khan owing to a discrepancy in his date of birth provided in official records. (Abdullah Azam Khan vs Nawab Kazim Ali Khan).A Bench of Justices Ajay Rastogi and BV Nagarathna noted that school records, signed under the appellant's authority, clearly indicated his date of birth as January 1, 1993. Khan had contended he was born on September 30, 1990. "Merely because the same [school records] has been later on cancelled by the appellant, it may not lose its evidentiary value" the majority opinion by Justice Rastogi states. Justice Nagarathna in her concurring judgment notes, " ... the stand taken by the successful candidate that all documents pertaining to the Birth Certificate dated 28.06.2012 issued by the office of Nagar Palika Parishad, Rampur, were burnt due to a short circuit on 08.05.2015 would suggest that the said birth certificate, wherein the date of birth of the successful candidate was recorded as 01.01.1993 came to be destroyed and later cancelled were under suspicious circumstances.".The appeal arose from an order of the High Court disqualifying then Member of Legislative Assembly (MLA) Abdullah Azam Khan for not having attained the age of 25 years as prescribed under Article 173(b) of the Constitution, while contesting polls. One Nawab Kazam Ali Khan had moved the High Court in 2019 alleging that the son of senior SP leader Azam Khan had, in his election affidavit, shown himself to be older than he actually was. .Senior Advocate Kapil Sibal, representing Abdullah Khan, had argued that the petitioner before the High Court had not discharged their initial burden of proving the allegation, which could have been done by placing evidence on record. Advocate Aadil Singh Boparai, representing the respondent before the top court, submitted that the burden of proof does not shift in such cases. .Abdullah Khan had won from the Suar constituency seat in the 2017 Uttar Pradesh Assembly Elections. He, along with his father Azam Khan and his mother Tazeen Fatma, were arrested for the alleged offences of cheating and forgery of his birth certificate in February 2020. Abdullah Khan was released on bail in January this year, while his mother was granted bail in December 2021. Azam Khan was only released on interim bail in May after spending over two years in jail, in connection with several other offences. .The top court, on the question of evidence to be considered, made clear, "It is also trite law that when both the parties have adduced evidence and that too is in reference to a common question and particularly for determination of age, which is the subject matter of dispute and when both the parties have adduced evidence, the question of onus of proof becomes academic.".[Read judgment]