Supreme Court relief for Azam Khan in enemy property case
Supreme Court relief for Azam Khan in enemy property case
m.u.h
28/05/2022349
New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Friday said that the Allahabad High Court exceeded settled parameters of bail in imposing “disproportionate” conditions against Samajwadi Party leader Azam Khan by ordering survey of the land situated within the Mohammad Ali Jauhar University run by him in an alleged case of usurpation over enemy property land.
Staying a portion of the HC order of May 10 releasing Khan, the bench of justices Dhananjaya Y Chandrachud and Bela M Trivedi said, “Prime facie, the conditions imposed by the high court for grant of bail are disproportionate and have no reasonable nexus with the conditions imposed to secure the presence of the accused and to ensure that the fairness of the trial is not impeded.”
Issuing notice on Khan’s petition challenging this portion of the bail order, the bench added, “Prima facie, the High Court, while imposing conditions for the grant of bail, has exceeded the settled parameters governing the exercise of the jurisdiction under Section 439 of the Code of Criminal Procedure 1973 (CrPC)….Till the next date of listing, the following directions contained in paragraph 39(1) of the impugned order of the High Court shall remain stayed.” The matter will be heard next on July 14.
Senior advocate Kapil Sibal who appeared for Khan even sought stay of all consequential orders as he pointed out that the District Magistrate, Rampur had issued notice to evacuate the properties of the University to carry out the HC order. “They want to demolish the University property. This has nothing to do with the land in question.”
The Court asked Sibal to approach the district authorities with the order of the top court. “Show this order to them. We have stayed that specific direction (passed by the High Court),” the bench said.
The bail was granted to Khan in a 2019 FIR registered under various provisions of cheating, forgery, criminal conspiracy and criminal conspiracy under the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and Section 3 of the Prevention of Damage to Public Property Act, 1984 for any act of mischief causing damage to public property punishable with a maximum sentence of five years prison term.
Khan was arrested in connection with this FIR in February 2020. The allegation in the FIR was that a landed property measuring 13.842 hectares was left by one Imamuddin Qureshi who during partition left the country and ever since the property came under the custody of Custodian, Enemy Property, Ministry of Home Affairs under the Government of India. It was alleged that the property was converted into Waqf property and registered with the UP Shia Central Waqf Board in 2003 when Khan was the Cabinet Minister in the state. This was done to facilitate the said land to be made part of the Ali Jauhar University, with Khan being its Chancellor, the FIR said.
Sibal even objected to other conditions in the May 10 order requiring day-to-day hearing and trial to be over within a period of one year. The top court said that those conditions were “innocuous” and could be dealt with later.
The HC in its order directed the District Magistrate, Rampur to hold a measurement of the landed property in dispute, raise a boundary wall and barbed wire around it and take the actual physical possession latest by June 30. Only after completion of this exercise, the HC allowed the interim bail granted to Khan to be converted into regular bail. The HC also requested the Custodian Evacuee Property Mumbai to hand over the property in dispute to some paramilitary forces for their training purposes. All these directions were stayed by the top court on Friday.
The HC had even observed, “The present order in this bail application may sound like a decree of the civil court dealing and deciding the title over the property, if not done so, the Court is failing in its duty or seems like providing a shelter and patronage to a rank trespasser and usurper over the property in dispute as per own admission.”
Khan alleged that the property claimed by the State to be enemy property is a matter lying in dispute before the Allahabad high court in a writ petition between the Waqf Board and the Custodian (Centre) where a stay on further proceedings is in operation. The same stood revived by the May 10 order. Khan alleged that the district administration on May 18 “mischievously and wrongly identified that land as the land underlying two buildings of the University” and issued notice to demolish the buildings.
Incidentally, the May 10 order by the HC was passed after a gap of five months, as orders were reserved on it in December 2021. Khan had approached the Supreme Court stating that his liberty was at stake as in the remaining cases he had obtained bail. The top court had commented saying this amounted to “travesty of justice” and within days, the HC pronounced its verdict. But before Khan was out of jail, he was made an accused in an old FIR relating to cheating where his arrest was sought.
On May 19, the top court noted the delay in implicating Khan in the case and granted him interim bail permitting him two weeks to approach the trial court for regular bail. Khan faces 88 criminal cases and is presently a legislator in the Uttar Pradesh Legislative Assembly.