The Supreme Court on Monday dismissed a plea filed by Sukesh Chandrasekhar seeking a stay on his conviction and sentence for impersonating a sitting Supreme Court judge and attempting to influence a judicial officer to grant him bail in a 2017 corruption case.
A bench of Justice JB Pardiwala and Justice Manmohan refused to interfere with the Delhi High Court’s October 16 order, which had declined to stay the conviction and sentence pending the disposal of Chandrasekhar’s appeal.
Senior Advocate Shoeb Alam, appearing for Sukesh Chandrasekhar, submitted that there was not a single conviction against him in the other cases pending against him. He argued that the trial court had repeatedly described Chandrasekhar as a “seasoned criminal”, “seasoned habitual offender” and “conman”, despite there being no material to establish that he had been convicted in any of the other cases.
He further argued that such observations could prejudice the pending trials and be treated as evidence of Chandrasekhar’s bad character. The bench, however, declined to grant relief finding that no error had been committed by the High Court in passing the impugned order.
Sukesh Chandrasekhar had approached the Supreme Court after the Delhi High Court declined to stay the trial court’s judgment of conviction dated August 20 and sentence dated August 29, 2026, pending the disposal of his appeal.
The case arose from a phone call made on April 28, 2017, when Sukesh Chandrasekhar was in police custody in connection with a corruption case. According to the prosecution, he obtained access to the mobile phone of Constable Manjeet, the police official in whose custody he was, and used it to contact Poonam Chaudhary, the then Special Judge hearing his corruption case under the Prevention of Corruption Act.
The prosecution alleged that Sukesh Chandrasekhar first impersonated the private secretary of a sitting Supreme Court judge and subsequently the judge himself. He allegedly attempted to persuade the judicial officer to grant him bail at the earliest and threatened her with adverse professional consequences if she refused.
A Delhi court convicted Sukesh Chandrasekhar under Sections 170, 189 and 507 of the Indian Penal Code, relating to personating a public servant, threatening a public servant and criminal intimidation by anonymous communication. It sentenced him to a total of eight years’ imprisonment, with the substantive sentences directed to run consecutively.