SC allows Unnao rape survivor to be heard in CBI plea against suspension of Kuldeep Sengar’s life term
Grants two weeks to the survivor to file her response to the suspension of Sengar’s life sentence
Noting that she has a right to be heard, the Supreme Court on Monday allowed the Unnao rape case survivor to be a party to the CBI’s petition challenging the bail granted to former BJP MLA Kuleep Singh Sengar.
“We are of the view that the victim has the right to be heard,” a Bench of Chief Justice of India Surya Kant and Justice Joymalya Bagchi said, granting two weeks to the survivor to file her response to the suspension of Sengar’s life sentence.
The Bench permitted the survivor to be made a party to the case, saying victims were entitled to participate in proceedings affecting their interests, in line with the court’s judgment in the Lakhimpur Kheri case.
However, it rejected an intervention application filed by a relative of the rape survivor alleging threat to his life and liberty, saying he was free to pursue independent remedies, instead of intervening in the CBI’s petition. He can move the high court for protection, it added.
The Bench could not take up CBI’s petition against suspension of sentence of Sengar on Monday as Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, representing the probe agency, was unavailable.
On behalf of Sengar, senior counsel N Hariharan requested the Bench to list the matter for hearing at the earliest, contending the liberty granted to his client by the Delhi High Court had been curtailed.
The CJI assured that a date for the hearing would be fixed soon.
Sengar’s appeals in the rape case against the December 2019 judgment convicting him and sentencing him to imprisonment for the remainder of his life, as well as the father’s case, are pending in the High Court.
His sentence in the rape case was suspended by the high court on December 23, 2025 till the pendency of his appeal challenging his conviction and sentence in the rape case. Noting that substantial questions of law were involved, the Supreme Court had on December 29, 2025 stayed the Delhi High Court’s order for suspension of sentence and grant of bail to the expelled BJP leader in the 2017 Unnao rape case during the pendency of his appeal against conviction.
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.
