Unnao Rape Case: When Seeking Justice Becomes Unreliable

The 2017 Unnao rape case has returned to the headlines. Earlier this month, the Delhi High Court granted interim bail to the convict, former BJP MLA Kuldeep Singh Sengar, by suspending his life sentence while his appeal is pending. Within days, the Supreme Court stepped in and stayed that order, ensuring that Sengar remains in jail for now. 

The Supreme Court’s intervention came after the CBI challenged the bail and raised concerns over the reasoning used to justify suspending a sentence in a case of such gravity and due to widespread protest and public unrest.

The survivor told the court that she fears for her children’s safety if Sengar is released. Her fear is not abstract or exaggerated; it is rooted in years of delay and institutional failure.

Public protests in Delhi following the bail order reflected the same anxiety a sense that even after a conviction, justice in India can feel temporary and reversible.

When Bail Becomes a Message

Bail is a legal concept, but in cases like Unnao, it becomes a message. Suspending a life sentence for a politically powerful convict sends a signal far beyond the courtroom.

It tells survivors that even after they endure social stigma and endless hearings, the system may still hesitate to stand firmly with them. It tells society that punishment for sexual violence is negotiable, subject to reinterpretation.

The Supreme Court’s stay corrects the immediate damage, but it also exposes a deeper problem. Why does it take public outrage and urgent appeals to safeguard the survivors? 

Justice should not depend on how loudly a case is visible in the public sphere.

The Cost Women Pay

What the Unnao case shows, yet again, is that women in India do not just fight perpetrators; they fight time, power, and exhaustion.

Even after convictions, survivors are forced to stay alert, fearful, and legally engaged. Appeals stretch for years. Sentences are suspended. Trauma reopens.

This is not what justice is supposed to look like. A conviction should reduce fear, not revive it. 

Beyond One Case

Unnao is no longer just about one survivor. It has become a symbol of how seeking justice has become so traumatic and fearful. 

If courts do not apply stricter standards while considering bail or suspension of sentence in such cases, they risk public faith in the very idea of accountability and independence of the judiciary from that of power-seeking politicians.

Women’s safety cannot be built on stays. It requires consistency, survivor protection, and a judicial approach that recognises the victim and their grief to be more important than the victimisation of the perpetrator himself.

Until justice feels dependable, cases like Unnao will keep returning, not because they are unresolved, but because the system refuses to let them be resolved and rest.

Views expressed in the article are the author's own.