Row over BJP ex-spokesperson’s nomination as Bombay HC judge reaches Parliament. Who is Aarti Sathe

Mumbai: The controversial nomination of an advocate for judgeship at the Bombay High Court has now reached Parliament, with Congress MP Hibi Eden moving an adjournment motion to discuss the matter in the Lok Sabha.

On 28 July, the Supreme Court Collegium approved the appointment of Aarti Arun Sathe, once a Maharashtra BJP spokesperson, as a high court judge, which sparked a row as the Opposition raised concerns over whether she would be impartial as a judge.

Supreme Court collegium has recommended the name of lawyer Aarti Sathe for elevation as a judge of the Bombay High Court.

Just curious because there’s an Adv Aarti Sathe who has been a spokesperson of Maharashtra BJP.

Legal fraternity – same person or just similar names? pic.twitter.com/zEjj6Cc6uG

— Saket Gokhale MP (@SaketGokhale) July 29, 2025

Earlier this week, others in the Opposition in Maharashtra began voicing their concerns. Nationalist Congress Party (Sharad Pawar) MLA Rohit Pawar wrote on X: “The appointment of a person who advocates for the ruling party from a public platform as a judge is the greatest blow to democracy. The judge is a highly responsible position which should be impartial. When someone is appointed as judge from the ruling party, it raises a serious question mark on neutral position and also democratic process…”

The Bharatiya Janata Party, however, clarified that the allegations are unfounded, and that her appointment is based on merit.

Keshav Upadhye, chief spokesperson of Maharashtra BJP, said she had resigned from the party a year and half ago. “She now has no connection with the BJP. The Congress party and Rohit Pawar are criticising her recommendation, which was made as per the decision of the judges’ Collegium,” he posted on X.

After resigning from the BJP, Aarti Sathe was recommended as a judge of the High Court after one and a half years. She now has no connection with the BJP. The Congress party and Rohit Pawar are criticizing her recommendation , which was made as per the decision of the judges’…

— Keshav Upadhye (@keshavupadhye) August 5, 2025

Congress’s state unit president Harshwardhan Sapkal also questioned Sathe’s nomination. “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.”

ThePrint attempted to reach Sathe via call, but she declined to comment on the matter.

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Who is Aarti Sathe?

Sathe was affiliated with BJP Mumbai, and was appointed as a spokesperson in 2023. She was previously made a panelist for media interactions in 2020. She was also the head of the party’s Legal cell. However, she had resigned from the position on 6 January, 2024, and also from the party’s primary membership that year.

“I wish to be relieved from the responsibility as the head-legal cell BJP Mumbai for personal and professional reasons,” she had written in a letter addressed to Mumbai BJP chief Ashish Shelar, a copy of which is with ThePrint.

Sathe has been a lawyer for the last 20 years, and has mainly dealt with matters linked to direct and indirect taxes, along with issues related to Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) and Securities Appellate Tribunal (SAT) before the Bombay High Court.

As party spokesperson, she often appeared in media debates on issues related to Mumbai. In debates on television news channels, she regularly spoke about the alleged mismanagement in the BMC (Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation), the condition of dilapidated buildings in the city, or the condition of roads.

Back in 2016, in a conversation with Mirror Now, she had defended demonetisation, saying that it would help clean up the corruption in BMC and MHADA (Maharashtra Housing and Area Development Authority).

She had also spoken against the Maha Vikas Aghadi government in 2021 when Shah Rukh Khan’s son Aryan Khan had been arrested in a drug bust, accusing the then cabinet minister Nawab Malik of the undivided NCP of trying to influence the case.

Referring to such statements by Sathe in the past, Rohit Pawar told media persons Wednesday, “She has in the past taken the side of one party vociferously. So we want to request the Supreme Court Collegium to stop this proposal. We don’t have doubt over her merit or capability. But looking at the current political scenario, question arises if common people will get justice? We as Opposition continuously speak against the government, so if our case goes in front of this judge, will we get justice?”

Arun Sathe’s BJP-RSS link

Much like the current row, a similar controversy had erupted back in 2015, when Sathe’s father, Arun Sathe, who is also the brother of former Lok Sabha speaker Sumitra Mahajan, was appointed to the board of market regulator SEBI as a part-time member.

Arun Sathe is also a lawyer, and has been a BJP worker with RSS background. He was a national executive member of the partyBJP, and held various positions in the student wing, ABVP.

However, he had said at the time that he had been nominated by the finance ministry, and would do his job judiciously. “…I understand the differences between politics and market issues. As a lawyer, I will have views independent of biases,” he had told Business Standard in 2015.

He had also said that he had been connected with the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh since childhood, and had been a part of the party since its Jan Sangh days. In 1989, he had tried to contest Lok Sabha polls from the Mumbai North West constituency against Congress’s Sunil Dutt, but had lost.

(Edited by Mannat Chugh)

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