New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Friday set aside the Delhi High Court order suspending the life sentence of expelled BJP leader Kuldeep Singh Sengar in the 2017 Unnao rape case.
A Bench of Chief Justice of India (CJI) Surya Kant and Justice Joymalya Bagchi partly allowed the special leave petition (SLP) filed by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) against the Delhi High Court order granting conditional bail to Sengar during the pendency of his appeal against conviction.
The apex court requested the Delhi High Court to make an endeavour to decide Sengar’s criminal appeal as expeditiously as possible, preferably within three months. “In case the High Court finds that the appeal is not likely to be decided early, it may pass a fresh order on the prayer for suspension of sentence after hearing all parties, including counsel for the complainant,” the CJI Kant-led Bench ordered, clarifying that it was not expressing any opinion on the merits of the matter at this stage.
During the hearing, Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, appearing for the CBI, submitted that the Delhi High Court had erred in adopting a narrow interpretation while considering whether an MLA would qualify as a “public servant” under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act.
Justice Bagchi orally remarked that the apex court was “not endorsing the hyper-technical approach taken by the High Court”. SG Mehta argued that a legislator occupied a dominant position and could not be excluded from the ambit of aggravated penetrative sexual assault provisions under the POCSO Act merely on technical grounds.
Senior advocate N. Hariharan, appearing for Sengar, contended that there was material to show that the prosecutrix was not a minor at the time of the incident and argued that the POCSO Act itself may not be attracted.
Hariharan further submitted that Sengar had already spent more than 10 years in custody and said that the issue regarding whether an MLA could be treated as a public servant would also require consideration.
The CJI Kant-led Bench was hearing the CBI’s plea challenging the December 2025 order of the Delhi High Court, which had suspended Sengar’s life sentence and granted him conditional bail during the pendency of his appeal. However, in December last year itself, the Supreme Court had stayed the operation of the Delhi High Court’s order and clarified that Sengar would not be released pursuant to the impugned judgment.
In December 2019, a Delhi trial court had convicted Sengar of kidnapping and raping a minor girl and sentenced him to imprisonment for the remainder of his natural life along with a fine of Rs 25 lakh.
The Supreme Court had earlier transferred all cases related to the Unnao incident from Uttar Pradesh to Delhi and directed that the trial be conducted on a day-to-day basis.
Separately, in February this year, the Supreme Court had declined to interfere with the Delhi High Court’s refusal to suspend Sengar’s sentence in the custodial death case of the rape survivor’s father.
Sengar was convicted by a Delhi court in March 2020 for conspiring in the custodial death of the survivor’s father and was sentenced to 10 years’ rigorous imprisonment.
(IANS)
