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Mohd. Abdullah Azam Khan vs. Nawab Kazim Ali Khan

Civil Appeal · 2022 INSC 1178Decided 7 Nov 2022
Civil Appeal No. 104 of 2020
Ajay Rastogi · B.V. Nagarathna · Nagarathna wrote a separate

Background

The appellant won the 2017 U.P. State Legislative Assembly election from the Suar constituency in Rampur. The losing candidate filed an election petition claiming the appellant was actually born on 1 January 1993 (making him under 25, and therefore constitutionally ineligible to contest under Article 173(b)) despite the appellant's nomination papers showing a birth date of 30 September 1990. The Allahabad High Court examined school records, passports, a Government Insurance Scheme nomination form, hospital and municipal birth-certificate records, and an ossification (bone-age) test, and set aside the election as void. The appellant then appealed to the Supreme Court.

Decision Breakdown

The Supreme Court found that the appellant's own long-standing academic records (Class X and XII certificates) and earlier passport/visa applications consistently recorded his date of birth as 1 January 1993, and that this was corroborated by an independent Government Insurance Scheme nomination form filed by his mother years before the election dispute arose. By contrast, a later birth certificate showing 30 September 1990 was obtained only in 2015, shortly before the appellant entered active politics, through documents from a hospital and municipal office that the Court found unreliable, inconsistent, and procedurally irregular, and the underlying records were said to have been conveniently destroyed in a fire. The Court gave no weight to the ossification test result since it conflicted with the more reliable documentary evidence. Both judges concluded the appellant had failed to prove he was 25 years old when he filed his nomination, upheld the High Court's finding, dismissed the appeal, and confirmed that his election stood set aside.

Lesson Learnt

In eligibility disputes, courts give the greatest weight to a person's own consistent, contemporaneous records (school certificates, passports, and similar documents created long before any dispute existed) over a conveniently late-obtained document that surfaces only when it becomes advantageous; a candidate seeking to rely on a changed birth date bears the burden of proving it, and cannot fall back on a discretionary test like bone-age ossification to override solid documentary evidence.

Official source (sci.gov.in)View Judgment (PDF)

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