A demand has been made that his appointment be terminated immediately. Jan Sangharsh Manch representative and senior advocate Mukul Sinha has declared to take up the matter with the government, for what Sinha says, is Justice Sethna’s “questionable” background.

In the past, Justice Sethna had hit headlines on several occasions due to his involvement in many controversies during his tenure as judge of the Gujarat and Rajasthan high courts.

As a judge of the Gujarat High Court, he had hit headlines in January 2004 when a two- judge bench headed by him upheld the judgment of the Vadodara fast-track court acquitting all the 21 accused in the Best Bakery mass murder case of 2002. But the Supreme Court not only rejected his judgment, also ordered a fresh trial by a special court in Mumbai and the accused were finally punished.

Justice Sethna was again in the eye of a judicial storm when on January 11, 2007, he allegedly assaulted another judge, Justice P B Majmudar. Although Justice Majmudar did not lodge any police complaint, he complained to the Chief Justice of the Gujarat High Court in writing, saying Sethna had done some battameezi (misbehaviour) with him. But Sethna refuted the allegations, saying Justice Majmudar harboured a grudge against him because in April 2006, he had passed a highly critical order against Majmudar’s lawyer son for representing a complaint in a matter that had been heard earlier by his father, which amounts to an unethical practice.

But the incident became the reason for Justice Sethna’s transfer out of the Gujarat High Court. Although he wrote a long letter to the Chief Justice of India, praying for a probe into the allegations of physical attack by him on Justice Majmudar, he was transferred to the Sikkim High Court while Majmudar was transferred to the Rajasthan High Court. While Majmudar joined his new posting, Sethna preferred to resign.

Even before this, he had landed in several other controversies after being appointed as a high court judge in November 1990. In 1994, he was pulled up by the Supreme Court for hearing a case in which he had himself appeared as an advocate. Subsequently, he was accused of “bad behaviour” with the bar by the Gujarat High Court Advocates’ Association in 1997, following which he was transferred to the Rajasthan High Court. In Rajasthan, he again courted controversy in September 1997 when he issued a contempt notice against Chief Justice M G Mukherjee of the High Court.

The provocation for the contempt notice was Justice Mukherjee transferring a criminal case that had been partly heard by Justice Sethna to a division bench for further hearing and disposal. However, contempt orders were stayed by the Supreme Court on a special leave petition filed by Justice Mukherjee himself.

Justice Sethna, who resigned in April 2007, still continues to occupy the sprawling bungalow in Judges Colony here. A High Court official said that Justice Sethna had been given extension by the chief justice.

But senior advocate and former president of the Gujarat High Court Advocates’ Association, Yatin Oza said no judge could continue to occupy the official residence beyond two months of retirement or resignation or else pay the market rent. “His stay in Judges Bungalow is per se illegal,” Oza remarked.