Judicial Officers' Pension | Notionally Include Increment Which Becomes Due On The Day After Retirement : Supreme Court

Accepting a recommendation made by the Second National Judicial Pay Commission, the Supreme Court has directed that the increment which becomes due to the judicial officer on the day after his retirement may be notionally included in the calculation of his pension as his last pay, subject to the vertical ceiling of Rs. 2,24,100/.The Commission suggested that judicial officers should have the benefit of increment falling due the next day following their retirement. A bench comprising Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud, Justice V Ramasubramanian and Justice PS Narasimha accepted the suggestion in the All India Judges Association case.In this regard, the bench referred to the recent decision The Director (Admn and HR) KPTCL & Others vs CP Mundinamani which held that government employees cannot be denied the annual increment merely because they are to retire on the very next day of earning the increment.The bench observed :"In such circumstances, the recommendations of the Commission in so far as it notionally grants the increment for the purposes of pension is completely justified. As a consequence of the acceptance of the recommendation, the calculation of pension must notionally include the increment for the purposes of calculation of pension. This will also obviate any confusion. It is therefore directed that the High Courts amend the applicable rule to state that the increment which becomes due to the judicial officer on the day after his retirement may be notionally included in the calculation of his pension as his last pay, subject to the vertical ceiling of Rs. 2,24,100/-". The Court also accepted various other suggestions made by the SNJPC and directed the High Courts to amend their service rules to implement them.Other recommendations which were accepted by the Court.States/High Courts shall take immediate steps to re-designate the officers in conformity with the All India pattern as recommended by FNJPC i.e. those who have not done it so far. The recommendation was to designate posts as Civil Judge (Junior Division), Civil Judge (Senior Division) and District Judge uniformly across the country.The new pay structure shall be as per the 'Pay Accepted Matrix' pattern on the model of VII CPC as against the 'Master Pay Scale' pattern so as to remove the anomalies and to rationalize the pay structure and to ensure due benefit to the judicial officers of all cadres within the framework of established principles.The categorization of the Judicial officers shall be based on their status in the functional hierarchy reflected in horizontal range in Table-I below para 13.1 of the Report.The initial pay for each rank of officer is about Accepted 2.81 times the existing entry pay of each rank except J-6 and J-7, which is in the same proportion of increase as that of the High Court Judge. Accordingly, the first row in the horizontal range (J-1 to J-7) denotes the entry pay for fresh recruits/appointees in that level.The new Mean Pay percentage vis-a-vis the salary of High Court Judge in relation to each cadre and grade as per p. 182 of the Report.The annual increment shall be @3% Accepted cumulative, meaning thereby that the increment @3% has to be calculated on the previous years basic pay instead of fixed amount increments recommended by FNJPC and JPC.In the Pay Matrix pattern, there shall be now 37 Accepted stages instead of 44.The fitment/migration of the existing officers shall be as reflected in Table II at para 13.3, read with p.73- Accepted to be read with Corrigendum dated March 2021 submitted by the SNJPC.The procedure for migration/fitment of the serving Judicial officers and also the procedure for fixation of pay on promotion shall be as explained in paras 13.5 and 13.8- Accepted – to be read with Corrigendum dated March 2021 submitted by the SNJPC.As regards the date of accrual of increment, there shall be no change in the existing system which is being followed in various states/UTs i.e. the increment shall be once in a year as per the date of appointment or promotion or financial upgradation.The retiring Judicial officers shall have the benefit of increment becoming due the next day following their retirement. That increment shall be for the purposes of pension only and shall be subject to vertical ceiling of Rs. 2,24,100/-.The pay of the judicial officers of all ranks/grades in the new pay matrix/pay structure shall be effective from 01.01.2016.Arrears of Pay w.e.f. 01.01.2016 shall be paid during the calendar year 2020, after adjusting the interim relief already paid under the Interim Report dated 09.03.2018.The present practice of sanction of DA at the rates prescribed by Central Government from time to time shall continue. The Hon'ble Supreme Court may issue directions that the benefit of revised DA in conformity with the orders issued by the Central Government from time to time shall be paid to the Judicial officers without delay, and in any case, not later than 3 months from the date of...

Judicial Officers' Pension | Notionally Include Increment Which Becomes Due On The Day After Retirement : Supreme Court

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