Overview
- India’s Supreme Court on Friday set aside the Delhi High Court order that had paused Kuldeep Singh Sengar’s life sentence and sent the case back for a fresh decision.
- The bench of Chief Justice Surya Kant and Justice Joymalya Bagchi told the High Court to try to decide Sengar’s appeal within about two months or issue a new order on his bid to suspend the sentence before the summer break.
- The court said it was not ruling on the merits but disagreed with the High Court’s ‘hyper-technical’ view that an MLA is not a public servant under the POCSO Act, asking the High Court to reconsider that question.
- Sengar remains in custody, including for a separate 10-year term in the custodial-death case of the survivor’s father, after the Supreme Court had already stayed his release on December 29, 2025.
- POCSO treats sexual assault by people in positions of authority as more serious, which can bring harsher punishment, and the CBI argued that easing a life term in such a case risks the survivor’s safety and weakens public trust.