Unnao Minor Rape Accused Kuldeep Singh Sengar’s Life Imprisonment Stay:A Planned Murder of the Judicial System –
Mass Protest Against Delhi High Court’s Unjust Order
Bhubaneswar, 27/12/25: The stay on life imprisonment of BJP leader and former MLA Kuldeep Singh Sengar in the Unnao minor rape case in Uttar Pradesh has been opposed by various human rights and democratic organizations. Branding it as a planned murder of the judicial system and a miscarriage of justice, a mass protest was organized today at Protest Square (Master Canteen Chowk) in Bhubaneswar against this inhumane and unjust order.
The stay on the sentence of former MLA and BJP leader Kuldeep Singh Sengar in the Unnao rape case has been legally flawed and problematic, according to various quarters, and protests are being held across the country against it. This Delhi High Court directive is not based on any primary evidence showing the accused as innocent; rather, legal experts have expressed that such a directive has been issued due to misclassification of the crime. In the Unnao rape case, the recent Delhi High Court directive to stay the sentence of former BJP MLA Kuldeep Singh Sengar has sparked agitation in various quarters, as it overlooks the seriousness of the crime while following the interpretation of the term ‘public servant.’
In this context, various human rights and democratic rights organizations have immediately demanded that the Delhi High Court should cancel this unjust order and have called for the intervention of the Supreme Court to deliver justice to the victim.
Essentially, the court noted that a sitting MLA is not a ‘government servant’ under Section 21 of the Indian Penal Code. On this argument, it was concluded that Section 5(c) of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act, 2012, which makes sexual assault by a public servant a serious offence, is not applicable to him. The court further held that Section 376(2) of the Indian Penal Code, which also makes rape by a public servant an aggravated offence, is not applicable to Kuldeep Singh Sengar. Consequently, it held that the sentence of imprisonment for the remainder of his life awarded under this provision cannot be sustained.
But the court’s interpretation that an MLA is not a “public servant” for the purposes of Section 5(c) of the POCSO Act seems to be valid in view of a syllabus and technical textbook which adopts the definition given in the POCSO Act, the Indian Penal Code. However, if we disregard the application of Section 5(c), then Sengar can be held guilty of sexual assault of a minor girl under Section 4 of the POCSO Act, which is punishable with life imprisonment. Similarly, life imprisonment is also attracted for the offence of rape under Section 376 of the Indian Penal Code. Even after accepting the Court’s view on the application of Section 5(c) of the POCSO Act, the order of stay of execution in a case involving life imprisonment for serious sexual offences is not acceptable.
Protesters like Pramila and Henarani of the All India Revolutionary Women’s Organization, Narendra Mohanty of the Campaign Against Fabricated Cases, Basanti Acharya and Mohammed Sukur from the Humanist Rationalist Organization, Debendra Sutar, Chairman of the Civil Society Forum for Human Rights, Deb Prasad Roy of the Lohia Academy, human rights activist Advocate Bishwapriya Kanungo, columnist Ranga Charan Pradhan, social activist Subhashini Bhadra, human rights activist Pradeepta Nayak, social activist Sharmishtha Nath, Rumita Kundu, Dilip Nayak , Arnapura, Jagannath Nayak, Puja Das, Kavita Jena, Rajni Behera from Basti Suraksha Manch, senior lawyer Khirod Raut, poet Lelin Kumar took the lead in today’s protest.
