Azam Khan | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Member of theUttar Pradesh Legislative Assembly | |
| In office 10 March 2022 – 27 October 2022[1] | |
| Preceded by | Tazeen Fatma |
| Succeeded by | Akash Saxena |
| In office 26 February 2002 – 23 May 2019[2] | |
| Preceded by | Afroz Ali Khan |
| Succeeded by | Tazeen Fatma |
| In office 9 June 1980 – 28 October 1995 | |
| Preceded by | Manzoor Ali Khan |
| Succeeded by | Afroz Ali Khan |
| Constituency | Rampur |
| Chancellor of theMohammad Ali Jauhar University | |
| Assumed office 2012 | |
| Vice-Chancellor | Dr. Zaheeruddin Sultan Mohammad Khan |
| Preceded by | Office established |
| Member of Parliament, Lok Sabha | |
| In office 23 May 2019 – 22 March 2022 | |
| Preceded by | Naipal Singh |
| Succeeded by | Ghanshyam Singh Lodhi |
| Constituency | Rampur |
| Cabinet Minister Government of Uttar Pradesh | |
| In office 15 March 2012 – 19 March 2017 | |
| Governor | Ram Naik Aziz Qureshi Banwari Lal Joshi |
| Chief Minister | Akhilesh Yadav |
| Ministry and Departments |
|
| Succeeded by | Ashutosh Tandon Nand Gopal Gupta |
| In office 29 August 2003 – 13 May 2007 | |
| Governor | Vishnu Kant Shastri Sudarshan Agarwal T. V. Rajeswar |
| Chief Minister | Mulayam Singh Yadav |
| Ministry and Departments |
|
| Member of Parliament,Rajya Sabha | |
| In office 1996–2002 | |
| Constituency | Uttar Pradesh |
| Personal details | |
| Born | (1948-08-14)14 August 1948 (age 77)[2] |
| Political party | Samajwadi Party[2] |
| Other political affiliations | Janata Party Janata Dal Lok Dal Janata Party (Secular) |
| Spouse | Tazeen Fatma (wife)[2] |
| Children | 2 (includingAbdullah Azam Khan) |
| Alma mater | Aligarh Muslim University[3] |
| Profession | Lawyer, politician |
Mohammad Azam Khan (born 14 August 1948) is an Indian politician, lawyer and former elected representative who has served as theMember of Parliament fromRampur. He is one of the founding members of theSamajwadi Party and was a member of theSeventeenth Legislative Assembly of Uttar Pradesh.[2][3] He was also the senior most Cabinet Minister in theGovernment of Uttar Pradesh and has been electedmember of the legislative assembly ten times fromRampur assembly constituency. He was disqualified from his elected seat when he received a two-year prison sentence from the court.[4]
Azam Khan was born inRampur,Uttar Pradesh,India to Mumtaz Khan. He attendedAligarh Muslim University and attainedBachelor of Laws degree in 1974.[2][3] Khan marriedTazeen Fatma in 1981 and has two sons.[2] Prior to entering politics, he worked as a lawyer. His sonAbdullah Azam Khan was an MLA fromSuar Assembly Constituency from 2017 to 2019.[5]
Azam Khan hailed from an ordinary family. He forged unions of bidi and textile workers and rickshaw pullers in order to take on Nawab of Rampur in 1980's. Azam Khan ended the political domination of the Nawab family in Rampur.[6] Since then, Azam Khan has been anMLA for ten terms; all fromRampur assembly constituency. He was also a cabinet minister in thegovernment of Uttar Pradesh. Khan is currently a member of theSamajwadi Party but has been a member of four other political parties between 1980 and 1992. During his first term (8th Legislative Assembly of Uttar Pradesh), he was a member ofJanata Party (Secular). During his second term (9th Legislative Assembly of Uttar Pradesh), he was a member of theLok Dal. Khan was a member ofJanata Dal during his third term (10th Legislative Assembly of Uttar Pradesh). In his fourth term (11th Legislative Assembly of Uttar Pradesh), Azam Khan was a member ofSamajwadi Janata Party. Since 1993 (his fifth term and12th Legislative Assembly of Uttar Pradesh), he has been a member of theSamajwadi Party.
Azam Khan also held a post of General Secretary in Samajwadi Party. On 17 May 2009, he resigned from the post of the party.[7] During the15th Loksabha elections, he became involved in a controversy withJaya Prada, who was contesting from BJP ticket and the surrounding controversies resulted in party crisis.[8] On 24 May 2009, he claimed to have been expelled for six years although the party chief claimed he himself resigned.[9] The Samajwadi Party later revoked his expulsion and he rejoined on 4 December 2010.[10] After his successful win in 2014, Khan has been given ticket from Rampur constituency by theSamajwadi Party for the Lok Sabha elections of 2019.[11]
During his career as a lawmaker and minister, there were many instances of Khan engaging inprofanity.[citation needed] He allegedly made provocative and objectionable comments against bureaucrats, government officials and abused his staff.[12][13][14]
During the2019 Lok Sabha elections, Khan was prohibited from campaigning twice afterElection Commission of India found him guilty of making objectionable comments in six of his speeches, including foul comments for his opponentJaya Prada, and violating theModel Code of Conduct.[15][16] Khan was accused of making sexist remarks again, while addressing his electorate for the first time after winning the Lok Sabha election, and a case was filed against him.[17][18] TheNational Commission for Women (NCW) reacted to the incident by calling for his disqualification.[19]
In 2023, Azam Khan was sentenced to two-years imprisonment by the court for using “criminal force to deter public servant from discharge of his duty” and inciting violence. This incident occurred in 2008 when the police stopped his vehicle for a search after an attack on aCRPF camp in his constituency, Khan allegedly obstructed traffic on the road and caused inconvenience to the public on the highway.[20][21] After this conviction, he was disqualified asMember of Legislative Assembly in accordance withRepresentation of the People Act, 1951 which mandates any elected leader who receive a jail sentence of two years or more will be disqualified from holding office. Following their conviction, they will be ineligible to vote for six years, rendering them unable to run for any elections during this time.[22][23] He lost his seat from Rampur constituency which he held for about three decades.[24]
Khan has been accused in almost 80 legal and criminal cases against him related to alleged land encroachment and criminal intimidation, most of them registered after 2017 in connection with land-grabbing forMuhammad Ali Jauhar University.[25]
Rampur Police has been investigating one of the cases of land acquisition. There are several cases of land grab registered against the NGO ‘Jauhar Trust’ founded by Khan.[26]
In January 2019, a case of forgery was lodged against Khan, his wifeTazeen Fatma and son with respect to the birth certificate of his sonAbdullah at a local police station in Uttar Pradesh.[27] In March 2019, theAllahabad High Court stayed their arrest until the probe was completed by the police.[28] Khan was supported by party leader Akhilesh Yadav who claimed the cases were politically motivated.[25] In January 2020, the court declared the three, Abdullah and his parents, to be absconders for failing to appear in the court during case hearings.[29][30] Following this, theEnforcement Directorate attached the properties of Khan from the first week of February onward.[31] On 26 February 2020, Khan was sentenced to imprisonment along with his wife and son for forging a fake birth certificate for his son.[32] The Supreme Court granted interim bail on 19 May 2022 in an alleged cheating case. The interim bail will continue till his regular bail plea is decided, clearing the way for his release.[33] On 27 October 2022, an MP-MLA magistrate court sentenced him to a three-year jail term after finding him guilty of hate speech in a 2019 case.[34] On 24 May 2023, a UP court acquitted Khan in a hate speech case.[35]
In October 2024, the Supreme Court of India berated Azam Khan and labelled the lease of government land to his Maulana Mohamad Ali Jauhar Trust inRampur as a “misuse of office”.[36]
On November 17 2025, Azam Khan and his sonAbdullah Azam were convicted and sentenced to jail terms of up to seven years by a special MP/MLA court in a 2019 case related to obtaining two PAN cards using different dates of birth, a prosecution officer said.[37]
| # | From | To | Position | Party |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 01 | 1980 | 1985 | MLA (1st term) fromRampur | Janata Party (S) |
| 02 | 1985 | 1989 | MLA (2nd term) fromRampur | Lok Dal |
| 03 | 1989 | 1991 | MLA (3rd term) fromRampur Minister in theGovernment of UP | Janata Dal |
| 04 | 1991 | 1992 | MLA (4th term) fromRampur Minister in theGovernment of UP | Janata Party |
| 05 | 1993 | 1995 | MLA (5th term) fromRampur Minister in theGovernment of UP | SP |
| 06 | 1996 | 2002 | MP (1st term) inRajya Sabha fromUttar Pradesh | SP |
| 07 | 2002 | 2007 | MLA (6th term) fromRampur Leader of the opposition inUP Legislative assembly (2002–03) Cabinet Minister in theGovernment of UP (2003–07) | SP |
| 08 | 2007 | 2012 | MLA (7th term) fromRampur | SP |
| 09 | 2012 | 2017 | MLA (8th term) fromRampur Cabinet Minister in theGovernment of UP | SP |
| 10 | 2017 | 2019 | MLA (9th term) fromRampur (resigned in 2019) | SP |
| 11 | 2019 | 2022 | MP (1st term) in17th Lok Sabha fromRampur (resigned in 2022) | SP |
| 12 | 2022 | 2022 | MLA (10th term) fromRampur (Disqualified on 27 October 2022 for The Rampur court had sentenced Mr Khan to three years of imprisonment in the hate speech case of 2019) | SP |
| Lok Sabha | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by | Member of Parliament forRampur 2019 – 2022 | Succeeded by |
