SC refuses to entertain plea seeking to declare Rampur Assembly constituency by-election "illegal"
Feb 13, 2023
New Delhi [India], February 13 : The Supreme Court on Monday refused to entertain a plea seeking to declare the Rampur Assembly Constituency by-election process as illegal alleging that police have stopped thousands of voters from exercising their right to cast their vote in Rampur bypoll.
A bench headed by Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud refused to entertain the plea filed by advocate Sulaiman Mohammad Khan.
The court noted the result has been declared now and asked the lawyer to approach the appropriate authority with his grievances.
The petitioner has sought to declare the by-election to Rampur Assembly Constituency as void and the election process illegal. The lawyer has alleged that police have stopped thousands of voters from exercising their right to cast their vote in the Rampur bypoll.
The lawyer has told the Supreme Court about police allegedly beating voters in the Rampur Vidhan Sabha constituency. The lawyer alleged that voters were beaten black and blue by the police.
The lawyer has claimed himself to be a voter of the Rampur constituency and said that the thousands of people were allegedly locked in their houses and were not allowed to exercise their voting rights.
The Rampur Assembly seat had fallen vacant after the Rampur District Court sentenced Azam Khan to three years in prison in a 2019 hate speech case over his comments against Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath. He was later granted bail and given a week's time to appeal against the sentence. He eventually lost his Assembly membership since his prison term was longer than two years.
The by-election was held in Rampur constituency on December 5 along with Mainpuri, a seat which fell vacant after SP supremo Mulayam Singh Yadav died on October 10.
