President A P J Abdul Kalam has returned the recommendation for appointment of Justice S L Bhayana, who had controversially acquitted all the accused in the Jessica Lal murder case, as a permanent judge of the Delhi high court.

"The President has returned the file with a query in the context of the recent Delhi high court judgment in the Jessica Lal case," Rashtrapati Bhavan spokesman S M Khan said on Tuesday.

In the recent judgment, a bench of Delhi high court headed by Justice R S Sodhi overturned Bhayana's judgment and convicted and sentenced the main accused Manu Sharma, son of Congress leader Venod Sharma, to life imprisonment.

The bench had described the judgment of the then additional sessions judge Bhayana's reasoning for acquitting Sharma, as strange and totally wrong. The high court convicted and sentenced two others.