MUMBAI: NCP (SP) legislator Rohit Pawar on Tuesday raised objections to the appointment of Aarti Sathe, a former spokesperson of the Maharashtra BJP, as a judge of the Bombay high court. Sathe, as justification, stated that she had already resigned from the party while the Maharashtra BJP pointed out that such an appointment had happened during the Congress regime too.
Rohit, in a social media post on Tuesday, pointed out that Sathe was appointed BJP spokesperson on February 2, 2023, and termed her selection to the judiciary as “the gravest blow to democracy”. “The appointment of a political figure raises doubts about the entire process of delivery of justice. It also undermines the principle of separation of power ensured by the Constitution,” he added, and demanded reconsideration of the decision.
The NCP (SP) leader said that merely having the qualifications to become a judge did not justify the direct appointment of political figures to judicial positions. “Isn’t this an attempt to turn the judiciary into a political arena?” he said. “Appointing a political spokesperson as a judge is nothing less than a betrayal of this constitutional principle, and by extension, an assault on the Constitution itself.” Rohit also sought Chief Justice of India Bhushan Gavai’s guidance on the matter.
Sathe confirmed that she was once a BJP spokesperson but stressed that she had resigned from the position. “I have resigned from all political posts long before this. So that settles it. I don’t want to respond to anything else,” she said when contacted.
The Congress’ state unit president Harshwardhan Sapkal said that if someone who held an active position in a political party was appointed as a judge, her judgments could not be impartial. “Democracy and the Constitution have been systematically sidelined in the country since 2014,” he said. “All autonomous institutions are operating under government directives, even the Election Commission of India. But the most serious and worrying development is within the judiciary itself.”
Shiv Sena (UBT) leader Anil Parab demanded that the Supreme Court stop the appointment. “Before appointing a person as a judge, there should be scrutiny to ensure that the person is not committed to any political or religious ideology,” he said. “The Supreme Court should stop this appointment.”
Responding to the controversy, the BJP said that Sathe had resigned from the post on January 6 last year, and posted her resignation letter on social media.
Sathe’s legal practice has mostly been in the field of direct and indirect taxes. She is an alumna of Government Law College, Mumbai. Her father, Arun P Sathe, is a devoted BJP worker with an RSS background. He was BJP in-charge of the eastern region of Uttar Pradesh and was also associated with the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Sena.
Arun Sathe had unsuccessfully fought the Lok Sabha elections as a BJP candidate in 1989 from Mumbai North-West Lok Sabha constituency against the Congress’ Sunil Dutt. He is the elder brother of former Lok Sabha Speaker Sumitra Mahajan. A similar controversy took place when the central government appointed him on the board of the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) in August 2015.
Maharashtra BJP chief spokesperson Keshav Upadhye said that Bahrul Islam was also appointed as a judge of the high court and later the Supreme Court by the Congress government. “In 1972, he was appointed to the high court after his Rajya Sabha term ended,” he pointed out. “He retired in 1980 and became active in politics again. Later, the Indira Gandhi government appointed him as a Supreme Court judge.”