Supreme Court To Hear Azam Khan's Plea Against Direction To Give Voice Sample In 2007 Hate Speech Case Tomorrow

The Supreme Court on Tuesday agreed to hear tomorrow a petition filed by Samajwadi Party leader Azam Khan challenging an order passed by a trial court in Uttar Pradesh directing him to give voice sample in a hate speech case.

Khan approached the Supreme Court challenging the order passed by the Allahabad High Court on July 25 which refused to interfere with the trial court's order.

Senior Advocate Kapil Sibal mentioned the petition before a bench comprising Justices AS Bopananna and SVN Bhatti for urgent listing. He submitted that although the  Special MP/MLA Court at Rampur was informed that a Special Leave Petition has been in the Supreme Court, the trial judge refused to defer the taking of voice sample.

Justice Bopanna initially agreed to list the matter on August 25. When Sibal pointed out that the case is posted before the trial court tomorrow, Justice Bopanna agreed to hear it tomorrow. 

The voice sample is being sought to ascertain the veracity of Khan's speech recorded in a CD. The case is over the allegation that the speech made in a public meeting in Rampur in August, 2007 was offensive to a particular community.

The High Court, while dismissing Khan's petition filed under Section 482 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, noted that the only legal objection raised by him was that the electronic evidence was not certified as per Section 65B of the Indian Evidence Act. The High Court observed that as per the Supreme Court precedent, such certificate can be obtained at a subsequent stage too.

"Considering the above, this application is disposed of finally with a direction that the court below shall obtain a certificate from Sanjay (proprietor of Pooja Cassette Centre), who recorded the entire event that occurred on 07.08.2007 and thereafter handed over the cassette to Mr Gulab Rai, (the then Naib Tehsildar), in terms of Section 65-B of the Indian Evidence Act. After such a certificate has been submitted in court by Sanjay, the applicant shall give his voice sample as directed vide order dated 29.10.2022", Justice Rajeev Misra, in the order issued on July 25, said.

In May this year, the Rampur Sessions Court had set aside the conviction of Khan in another hate speech case relating to a speech given in 2019. The conviction order passed by the trial court in the 2019 case had led to Khan's disqualification as an MLA representing Rampur, resulting in a bye-poll, which was won by a BJP candidate last year.

Case : Mohd Azam Khan v. State of Uttar Pradesh SLP (Crl) 10108/2023