Judicial Pay Commission : Supreme Court To Decide Issue Of Pay Scale & Pension Of Subordinate Judiciary On Priority Basis

The Supreme Court of India on Thursday observed that it will decide the issues of Pay Scales and pensionary/retiral benefits of the Subordinate Judiciary on a priority basis, considering the long pendency of these two issues.A Bench comprising the Chief Justice of India NV Ramana, Justice Surya Kant and Justice Hima Kohli was hearing a plea filed by All India Judges Association for constitution of All India Judicial Commission to review the service conditions of the judges of the district judiciary."We find that it would be appropriate for us to decide the first two issues on priority basis, i.e., one relating to Pay Scales to the subordinate Judiciary and the other relating to pensionary/retiral benefits, keeping in mind the long pendency of these two issues".The Apex Court had constituted the Second National Judicial Pay Commission in 2017 to review the pay scale, service conditions etc of the subordinate Judiciary. The Bench today directed the State Governments and Union Territories to give their objections to the recommendation of the Second National Judicial Pay Commission in this regard to the Amicus Curiae K Parameshwar so as to enable him to prepare a comprehensive report containing such objections and the Commission's observations in relating to such objections, if any."Please cooperate and do it in interest of Judiciary of the Country" the CJI told the State CounselsFurther, short written objections will be given by the Attorney General for India and ASG K.M. Nataraj, Additional Solicitor General would give objections on behalf of the Union of India.The Bench has directed that all the objections must reach the Amicus Curiae and the Court preferably within a period of one week today to enable the Court to fix a date for passing appropriate Orders in the matter.The Commission formed by the Apex Court has already submitted its report on issue of pay, pension and allowances and service conditions with reference to subordinate judiciary but is yet to submit its report regarding issue of Work Methods and Work Environment etcCourtroom Exchange: The Amicus in the matter, Adv K Parameshwar made the following submissions before the Court today:Most crucial recommendation given by the Commission is, so far as pension is concerned post new pension scheme, judges are no longer entitled to pension, they have to contribute to their own pension. The Commission has taken a view that this hits at the very root of financial independent of subordinate judiciary of this country. So what happens is , when Central Government adopted the new pension scheme for all its employees and subsequently most State Governments have also adopted it, judges are also being transitioned to new pension scheme. So what happens for all judges is, the Magistrate, an entry level subordinate judicial officer, has to contribute to his PF, for his own pension etc.The objections were raised during hearing of the Commission and the Commission categorically addressed them. The Supreme Court also categorically recorded n its February 2020 order that this comparison and these objections should not be taken.Under new system, an entry level civil judge will get 47% of what a High Court Judge gets and a District court judge will get 94.04%. There's a vertical limit that commission has kept in terms of comparison with Pay scale of High Court Judge.Principal objection from States is that they have compared the pay scales of judicial officers with civil services which the Supreme Court has in previous judgements held cannot be done as Judiciary is class apart. Further they've objected to matrix system, index of rationalisation etcWhat's being opposed now is that at certain levels judicial officers will be entitled to more pay than what correspondingly civil service officers are getting under the 10th Pay Commission recommendation.Commission has said that it has tried to maintain some sort of parity with civil service officers and that's what the SC has also said that there ought not be.The Fulcrum of objections is that the State says that we don't get any contribution from Centre as far as pay scale is concerned. The Centre takes the stand that under the Constitutional scheme it is for the states to bear this expense.Some Judicial officer associations have asked for more. The Commission's recommendations should be implemented, as Central Government officers got these pay revisions from 2016, next Pay Commission is due for them for 2026.Senior Advocate Gourab Banerjee, assisted by Advocate Mayuri Raghuvanshi submitted that the petitioner would join with the Amicus and submitted that the issue of pay and allowances and pension may be decided.The Bench then asked the States to submit their objections to the Amicus, and observed that orders can be passed for issues of pension and pay scale and the other issues can be considered later. The Bench then told Attorney General KK Venugopal "Your role is ...

Judicial Pay Commission : Supreme Court To Decide Issue Of Pay Scale & Pension Of Subordinate Judiciary On Priority Basis

Srishti Ojha

Tags