LK Advani judgment in spotlight as SC halts Kuldeep Sengar’s release - Here's why

LK Advani

• Supreme Court stayed Delhi HC order granting bail to ex-MLA Kuldeep Sengar
• CBI argued MLAs should be treated as public servants under POCSO Act
• Sengar has four weeks to respond to Supreme Court notice

Did our AI summary help?

The Supreme Court on Monday stayed the Delhi High Court's order allowing the release of former Uttar Pradesh MLA Kuldeep Singh Sengar, after suspending his life sentence and granted him bail in the 2017 Unnao rape case.

The Supreme Court's judgment came after the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) moved the apex court, challenging the High Court’s reasoning and raising the issue of whether an elected legislator can be treated as a “public servant” under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act.

In its appeal, the CBI relied on a 1997 Supreme Court ruling in the ‘LK Advani vs CBI’ case, which examined the legal status of MPs and MLAs under the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988.

That case arose from corruption allegations involving senior political leaders, including Advani, where the agency had alleged that illegal funds were paid to politicians in return for government favours.

A key question before the court at the time was whether elected representatives could be classified as “public servants” for the purpose of anti-corruption law. The Supreme Court had ruled that MPs and MLAs do fall within the definition of public servants under the Prevention of Corruption Act.

The CBI has argued that the same principle should apply in cases involving sexual offences against children. According to the agency, the Delhi High Court adopted an unduly narrow reading of the POCSO Act and failed to consider binding precedent.

It cautioned that excluding MLAs from the scope of “public servant” under POCSO would dilute the intent of the legislation.

A vacation bench led by Chief Justice Surya Kant, with Justices JK Maheshwari and Augustine George Masih, stayed the High Court order granting bail to Sengar. The court issued notice to the former BJP legislator and allowed him four weeks to respond to the CBI’s petition.

The case dates back to 2017, when a teenage girl from Unnao accused Sengar, then the sitting MLA from Bangarmau, of rape. The matter also involved the death of the survivor’s father in custody, in which Sengar was separately convicted.

Following trial, a court sentenced Sengar to life imprisonment in the rape case.

Earlier this week, the Delhi High Court had suspended the sentence and granted bail while hearing Sengar’s appeal against his conviction. A bench of Justice Subramonium Prasad and Justice Harish Vaidyanathan held that Sengar’s status as an MLA did not, by itself, make him a “public servant” under the POCSO Act.

The High Court observed that the definition of “public servant” under POCSO does not explicitly include MLAs and held that Sengar could not be subjected to what it described as stricter standards applicable under the law to public servants or persons in positions of trust.