The Allahabad High Court on Wednesday dismissed a petition filed by former Mau MLA Abbas Ansari, son of jailed gangster-turned-politician Mukhtar Ansari, in connection with a 2022 hate speech case. The court deemed the petition infructuous, noting that the trial in the case had already concluded and a judgment had been delivered.
Justice Samit Gopal passed the order while hearing Abbas Ansari’s plea, which had challenged a forensic report concerning an audio clip of the alleged hate speech. The bench held that since the impugned order dated April 9, 2025, pertained to a matter that had already been adjudicated, the petition no longer survived.
“In the opinion of the court, since an order dated April 09, 2025, was impugned in the present petition and the trial of the matter has concluded and a judgment has been pronounced, the present petition has rendered infructuous,” the court observed.
The bench added that the judgment delivered by the trial court could still be challenged by the aggrieved party on appropriate grounds, in accordance with law. “The judgment can always be subjected to challenge before the concerned trial court if the parties therein agitate the same on the available grounds,” the court noted, dismissing the application under Section 528 of the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita (BNSS).
The case relates to a political rally held in Mau district during the 2022 Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections, where Abbas Ansari allegedly shared the stage with his brother, who was accused of threatening government officials with retribution after the elections. A video of the speech had gone viral, leading to an FIR against the Ansari brothers in March 2022 under Sections 171F (undue influence at elections) and 506 (criminal intimidation) of the Indian Penal Code.
In a significant development earlier this year, Abbas Ansari was convicted by a special MP-MLA court and sentenced to two years in prison. Following the conviction, he was disqualified as an MLA, and the Mau Assembly seat was declared vacant.
