Who Is Aarti Arun Sathe, New Bombay HC Judge Whose Appointment Sparked Controversy?

Advocate Aarti Arun Sathe’s recent appointment as Bombay High Court judge has sparked an intense debate. Sathe has two generations of family members with a legacy in the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), the parent body of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), of whose Mumbai unit she is a former spokesperson as well as former head of its legal wing.

Sathe’s appointment was cleared by the Supreme Court collegium in its meeting held on July 28. Two other advocates, Ajit Kadethankar and Sushil Ghodeswar, were also cleared for the prestigious role. Sathe is the fourth woman sitting judge at the Bombay High Court, following Justices Revati Mohite-Dere, Bharati Dangre and Vibha Kankanwadi.

But Sathe’s appointment has sparked conversations as to whether, and to what extent, a judge’s family background and the ideology of their parents or other family members matters, will matter in delivering a judge's duty. 

Rohit Pawar, Member of the Maharashtra Legislative Assembly from the Karjat-Jamkhed seat and other opposition leaders are demanding that her appointment be reconsidered, primarily due to the roles she has held and her family background. 

Sathe was appointed BJP spokesperson in February 2023 by the party’s Maharashtra president, Chandrashekhar Bawankule. She headed the party’s legal wing in Mumbai. She resigned from both positions and gave up her party membership in January 2024, 18 months before the collegiums cleared her appointment.

She holds a Masters in constitutional and administrative laws from the University of Mumbai and qualified as solicitor in the United Kingdom. Her career has included working as independent counsel, appearing before courts and quasi-judicial bodies, including the Income Tax Appellate Tribunal, the Customs and Excise tribunals and the Service Tax Appellate Tribunal. She has appeared in the Bombay High Court for tax appeals, writ petitions, etc.

Sathe has been an independent director of the American multinational seed company Monsanto’s India unit since 2019. (Monsanto merged with the German chemical and pesticide giant, Bayer Global, in 2018.) Monsanto India has often been at the center of controversies, including allegedly causing losses to farmers through its monopoly over certain seed varieties.

Sathe is also an independent director of BF Utilities, a wind energy firm involved in other infrastructure projects as well. BF Utilities is owned by the Kalyani Group led by Babasaheb (Baba) Kalyani, best known for, Bharat Forge Limited, its biggest company, involved in defence manufacturing. Sathe is also an independent non-executive director of BF Investments, another Kalyani Group company, according to the database of the Ministry of Corporate Affairs.

Aarti Sathe’s grandfather, Purushottam Nilkanth Sathe, was also an active RSS member and Konkan region leader of RSS. He was famously known as Appa Sathe and was also a lawyer. His legal practice and contributions to the RSS gained him massive respect among RSS workers, who frequently stayed at his Chiploon home during their tours. 

None other than Dr Keshav Baliram Hedgewar, the founder of the RSS, is said to have spotted Appa Sathe during a Konkan tour in 1938, and asked him to join the RSS. This, too, is recorded by Arun Sathe in his memoirs.

Her mother, Kranti Sathe, is a lawyer at the family courts in Mumbai. Former Lok Sabha Speaker and BJP leader Sumitra Mahajan is Arun Sathe’s sister—hence she is Aarti Sathe’s aunt.  

RSS Legacy

Sathe’s father, Arun Purushottam Sathe, was a well-known senior advocate at the Bombay High Court, experienced in matters related to taxation. He held a part time position as Member on the board of SEBI, the Securities and Exchange Board of India. Arun Sathe’s RSS connections are well-known. He was Vibhag Sanghchalak  of the RSS for several years at Chiploon taluka in coastal Maharashtra’s Ratnagiri district for many years. He also worked in Assam to advocate for the RSS’s ideology, as he notes in his memoirs, My Flirtations with Politics, which has been translated and published in Marathi as Mazi Rajkiya Mushafiri.

In 2021, the Marathi translation was launched at Raj Bhavan, the official residence of the state Governor, who was then Bhagat Singh Koshyari. Maharashtra BJP leaders such as Mangalprabhat Lodha, Chandrakant Patil attended the event, as did Aarti Sathe herself.

How High Court Judges Are Appointed

Sathe resigned from all her positions in the BJP 18 months before her selection as judge. The appointment of High Court judges takes six to twelve months, and proceeds according to Section 217 of the Constitution of India. The High Court collegium sends recommendations to the state Chief Minister and after a discussion, those names are sent to the Union Ministry of Law and Justice. The Intelligence Bureau (IB) conducts its own vetting of candidates by completing background checks on them. After this, the Supreme Court collegium reviews the proposed candidates and approves or returns them.

The ones the Supreme Court approves are sent to the Ministry of Law and Justice for final clearance. At this stage, the ministry is tasked with preparing an appointment file that is sent to the Prime Minister, who forwards it to the President. After the President’s approval, an official notification is issued in the Gazette of India, and the state Governor swears the judge into office on oath.