Power on Trial

The Supreme Court's decision to halt the suspension of the life sentence awarded to Kuldeep Singh Sengar is more than a procedural intervention.

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It is a reminder that justice in cases of sexual violence cannot be reduced to narrow textual interpretations divorced from power, context, and consequence.At the heart of the controversy lies a troubling legal question: whether an elected legislator occupies a position of trust or authority under child protection law. The argument that political office does not automatically entail such authority may be technically defensible in isolation, but it collapses when placed against India’s lived political reality.

Legislators wield influence not merely through statute but through networks of control ~ over police, local administration, and social hierarchies ~ especially in rural and semi-urban India. To pretend otherwise is to ignore how power functions on the ground.