New Delhi: The Supreme Court, on Friday, set aside a Delhi High Court order that had suspended former Uttar Pradesh MLA Kuldeep Singh Sengar’s life sentence in the Unnao rape case.
The bench of Chief Justice Surya Kant and Justice Joymalya Bagchi remitted the matter to the High Court for a fresh decision.
The Court partly allowed an appeal filed by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) and requested the High Court either to decide Sengar’s appeal against conviction within three months or pass a fresh, reasoned order on his application seeking suspension of sentence, as reported by News18.
In December, the SC had stayed the High Court’s order granting bail to Sengar after suspending his life sentence during the pendency of his appeal.
This decision of the High Court had triggered widespread criticism, prompting the CBI to move the Supreme Court.
Senior advocate N Hariharan, appearing for Sengar, argued that material on record showed the prosecutrix was not a minor at the time of the alleged offence.
Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, representing the CBI, however, contested the claim and also challenged the High Court’s view that an MLA could not be treated as a “public servant” for the purpose of applying aggravated offence provisions.
Justice Bagchi agreed with the
prosecution on this point, observing that the court was “not endorsing the hyper-technical view” taken by the High Court and underlining that the law in question was enacted to protect children.
An MLA occupies a dominant position and misuse of such authority ought to be treated as an aggravating factor, the Solicitor General submitted.
CJI Kant, calling for a practical course, said the High Court should take a fresh call on the issue, noting that it might otherwise be reluctant to hear the main appeal while the matter remained pending before the Supreme Court.
The High Court, while granting bail had held that aggravated offence provisions were not attracted as Sengar could not be categorised as a public servant, and on that basis proceeded to suspend his sentence.
Such reasoning diluted the protective framework of child-protection law and ran contrary to settled principles governing suspension of life sentences, the CBI maintained.
Prolonged incarceration alone cannot justify suspension of sentence in cases involving heinous crimes such as the rape of a minor, and that release of a powerful convict poses risks to the survivor and undermines public confidence in the justice system, the agency further argued.
A special CBI court convicted Sengar in 2019 for raping a minor girl in the Unnao district of Uttar Pradesh and sentenced him to life imprisonment.
The former MLA is also serving a 10-year sentence imposed in 2020 in a separate case relating to the culpable homicide of the survivor’s father. Earlier this year, the High Court rejected his plea for suspension of sentence in that case, citing his criminal antecedents and the absence of any new circumstances.