Senior Samajwadi Party leader Azam Khan on Thursday moved the Allahabad High Court for quashing of a spate of FIRs registered against him in a single week in a Rampur police station for allegedly grabbing farmers' lands to build a university there.
As the matter came up for hearing, a bench of justices Pritinkar Diwakar and Justice Raj Beer Singh adjourned the hearing on the petition for August 29 on the request of Khan's counsel R K Jain.
As soon as the court began the hearing, advocate Vijay Gautam, appearing for farmers on whose complaints a total of the 27 FIRs have been registered against Khan in Rampur's Azeem Nagar police station, objected to the "maintainability" of the petition.
Gautam argued that the petition is not worth hearing and need to be dismissed at the outset as it is not maintainable for the petitioner has sought quashing of all 27 FIRs in a single petition.
He should have filed one petition each for quashing of each of the FIRs, he contended, prompting Khan's counsel Jain to seek adjournment of the hearing for another day.
The farmers on whose complaints the FIRs were registered had already filed a caveat in the court requesting it to give them an opportunity to have their say if Khan moved court for quashing of the FIRs.
A total of 27 FIRs were registered against Khan between July 13 and 20 and one on August 3 on farmers' complaint that Khan had allegedly grabbed their lands forcibly to build the Mohammd Ali Jauhar University in Rampur.
In his petition, the Lok Sabha MP from Rampur has alleged that all the FIRs, registered against him were politically motivated and were lodged at the behest of the district adminstration owing to his rivalry with the ruling party.