Ansari reinstated as MLA days after HC stayed conviction

Abbas, who was elected from the Mau Assembly seat in 2022 Uttar Pradesh elections, was sentenced to two years of rigorous imprisonment in May this year in a three-year-old hate speech case, leading to his disqualification from the membership of the House.

The 33-year-old son of gangster-politician Mukhtar Ansari was booked on March 3, 2022, for his campaign speech in which he had allegedly threatened to “teach a lesson” to the administrative officials of Mau after the elections.

He challenged his conviction order in the sessions court of Mau, which on July 5 stayed the sentence but declined to stay the conviction. He then appealed in the Allahabad High Court.

However, while hearing his revision petition last month, the Allahabad High Court suspended his conviction.

On August 20, the High Court suspended the conviction of Ansari saying “refusal to stay his conviction amounts to injustice not only to him but also to the electorate which elected him”.

In his order, Justice Sameer Jain of the Allahabad High Court cited the 2024 Supreme Court order against disqualification of Congress leader Rahul Gandhi (Rahul Gandhi Vs Purnesh Ishwarbhai Modi, 2024), saying “disqualification of a person not only affect the right of public representative to continue in the public life but also affect the right of electorate who have elected him to represent their constituency”.

The High Court also made it clear that the observation made by his court was only for the purpose whether the conviction order can be stayed or not during the pendency of the appeal.