SC Stays Delhi HC Order Granting Bail to Kuldeep Singh Sengar in Unnao Rape Case

The Supreme Court on Monday stayed the Delhi High Court’s order granting bail and suspending the sentence of expelled BJP leader Kuldeep Singh Sengar, convicted in the 2017 Unnao rape case, during the pendency of his appeal against conviction. The top court’s decision came after the CBI challenged the high court’s December 23 order.

A three-judge Special Vacation Bench, led by Chief Justice Surya Kant and comprising Justices JK Maheshwari and AG Masih, observed that substantial questions of law were involved in the matter. The bench stated, “The matter requires consideration. We are inclined to stay the [High Court] order. General principle is once someone has been released, the person will be heard. But in view of peculiar facts where convict is convicted of a separate offence, we stay operation of the Delhi High Court’s order dated December 23, 2025. Thus, the respondent (Sengar) shall not be released pursuant to the said order.”

The court issued notice to Sengar on the CBI’s petition and directed him to file his response within four weeks. Notice was also issued on another petition filed by advocates Anjale Patel and Pooja Shilpkar, challenging the same high court order.

The Delhi High Court had earlier suspended Sengar’s jail term, citing that he had already served seven years and five months in prison. It held that aggravated offence provisions under Section 5(c) of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act and Section 376(2) of the Indian Penal Code did not apply in his case and ruled that he could not be categorised as a “public servant” under relevant legal provisions. The high court had directed Sengar to furnish a personal bond of Rs 15 lakh with three sureties of the same amount and imposed restrictions preventing him from approaching the survivor’s residence or threatening her or her mother.

Senior counsels Siddharth Dave and K Hariharan, appearing for Sengar, had defended the high court order, arguing that a penal statute cannot import definitions from another statute.

Sengar is also serving a 10-year jail term in connection with the custodial death of the survivor’s father. His appeal challenging that conviction is still pending. The Unnao rape case and other connected cases had been transferred from a trial court in Uttar Pradesh to Delhi on Supreme Court orders dated August 1, 2019.

The Supreme Court’s intervention comes amid widespread protests by the survivor and activists following the Delhi High Court’s bail order.

This ruling ensures that Sengar remains in custody until the top court examines the legal questions raised in the CBI’s petition.