NEW DELHI: Noting that substantial questions of law were involved, the Supreme Court on Monday stayed the Delhi High Court’s order for the suspension of sentence and grant of bail to expelled BJP leader Kuldeep Singh Sengar in the 2017 Unnao rape case during the pendency of his appeal against conviction.
“We are conscious of the fact that ordinarily when a convict/undertrial has been released on bail pursuant to an order passed by the trial court or the high court, such order shall not be stayed by this court without hearing such person,” a three-judge special vacation Bench led by CJI Surya Kant said.
“However, the instant matter revolves around certain unique facts and circumstances, wherein the respondent-convict is also separately convicted and sentenced in a case under Section 304 Part II of the IPC and is consequently still in custody. We are informed that in such proceedings also, the respondent-convict has applied for bail, and after hearing the arguments, the order is said to have been reserved by the court concerned,” it said.
“Keeping in mind these peculiar circumstances, we deem it appropriate to stay the operation of the impugned order dated December 23, 2025, passed by the high court. Consequently, the respondent shall not be released from custody pursuant to the said order,” said the Bench, which also included Justice JK Maheshwari and Justice AG Masih.
Issuing a notice to Sengar on the CBI’s petition, the court asked him to file his response in four weeks and posted the matter for further hearing on January 20, 2026. It also issued a notice to the convict on another petition filed by advocates Anjale Patel and Pooja Shilpkar, challenging the Delhi HC’s order.
Noting that the victim has a statutory right to file a separate special leave petition, the Bench said, “She does not require any liberty from this court. In case she needs any free legal aid, the Supreme Court Legal Services Committee is directed to provide such services to her. However, she may, if so advised, file her appeal through counsel of her own choice.”
The order came on a petition filed by the CBI challenging the December 23 order of the high court after Solicitor General Tushar Mehta urged the top court to stay the high court’s order that led to protests by the victim and activists.
On behalf of Sengar, senior counsel Siddharth Dave and N Hariharan defended the high court’s order, saying a penal statute could not import definition from another statute. During the hearing, the Bench said some people were trying to take “political advantage”.
“We understand it. We are not sitting in ivory towers. We understand that people are trying to take advantage,” the CJI said. Hariharan pointed out that some people were levelling allegations against the HC judges who dealt with the case. “They are doing that on national television,” Hariharan said. There was a video circulating too and that was a cause of concern, he added.
The Bench said such people were simply forgetting that Sengar was convicted by the judiciary only. “Very frankly, these judges are one of the finest we have,” it said.
Later, Mehta too defended the HC judges, saying they were “brilliant judges with unimpeachable integrity” and any attempt to malign them must be strongly condemned.
The high court had held that aggravated offence provisions under Section 5(c) of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act and Section 376(2) of the Indian Penal Code were not attracted in Sengar’s case. It had said that he could not be categorised as a “public servant” within the meaning of the relevant provisions of the law, suspending his sentence. It had suspended the jail term of Sengar — serving life imprisonment in the Unnao rape case – noting he has already served seven years and five months in prison.
Sengar’s sentence was suspended by the high court till the pendency of his appeal challenging his conviction and sentence in the rape case. He has challenged a December 2019 trial court verdict in the case.
However, he continues to remain in jail as he’s also serving 10 years’ imprisonment in the custodial death case of the victim’s father and has not been granted bail in that case.
The high court had directed Sengar, who kidnapped and raped a minor, to furnish a personal bond of Rs 15 lakh with three sureties of the like amount.
It had also ordered him not to come within a 5-km radius of the survivor’s residence in Delhi and not to threaten her or her mother. Violation of any of the conditions would lead to the cancellation of bail, the high court said.
The rape case and other connected cases were transferred to Delhi from a trial court in Uttar Pradesh on the orders of the Supreme Court on August 1, 2019.
Sengar’s appeal against his conviction in the case of the custodial death of the survivor’s father is also pending, where he has sought suspension of sentence on the ground that he has already spent a substantial time in jail.