Supreme Court Extends Terms Of Members Of Second National Judicial Pay Commission

Supreme Court has on Friday directed that the term of the members of the Second National Judicial Pay Commission to be extended till 30th April 2021. The term of the Commission was scheduled to end on 31st March 2021.

A three-judge Bench of CJI Bobde, Justice Bopanna and Justice Ramasubramanian extended the terms of Justice (Retd.) P.V. Reddy and Justice (Retd.) R. Basant till 30th April. The Court has also extended the term of the deputation of the Member Secretary so that he may attend the duties of the Commission.

The Commission formed by the Apex Court has already submitted its report on issues of pay, pension and allowances with reference to subordinate judiciary but is yet to submit its report regarding issue of service conditions.

The court was hearing plea by All India Judges Association seeking review of service conditions of the judicial officers of subordinate judiciary in India, including but not limited to pay scales, retirement age, pension, and other emoluments. The Supreme Court through its order dated 9th May 2017 had directed constitution of Second National Judicial Pay Commission headed by Justice PV Reddi to look into these issues.

The extension of term has been granted in pursuance of a letter by the Amicus curiae Adv Parameshwar dated 24th March stating that the Commission requires extension of one month to submit its report regarding third term of reference.

According to the Amicus Curiae's letter addressed to the Secretary General, the Commission has already submitted its main report on first two terms of reference and will be submitting its report on residual matters on 26th March 2021. He further stated that the Commission, whose term is currently expiring on 31st March 2021 requires an extension 30th April to submit its report regarding third term of reference.

The All India Judges Association was represented by Senior Advocate Gourab Banerji before the top Court

Representation by All India Judges Association to Second National Judical Pay Commission dated 19th November:

The All India Judges Association had on 19th November 2020 submitted a representation to the Second National Judicial Pay Commission to take up these issues in accordance with terms of reference as set out in order dated 9th May 2017 as well as the notification dated 16th November 2017. The issues asked to be taken up included examination of work methods and work environment for the purposes of promoting efficiency judicial Administration, optimising the size of judiciary and to remove anomalies created in implementation of earlier recommendation.

The terms of reference also extend to other issues such as gender sensitisation of the judges of district judiciary, training in using technology for the purposes of research and conducting trial etc.

The representation was made requesting the Commission to initiate hearing regarding conditions of judges and for suggesting solutions to remove anomalies in the report of the First Judicial Pay Commission.

• The Association pointed out the following anomalies created by implementation of recommendations of Shetty Commission which require proper rectification:

• No promotion from cadre of civil judge to District Judge. Large age difference between direct recruits and promotes disturbing harmony between two stream of appointees.

• Less opportunities to district judges to get elevation and silence on process adopted for silence.

• Issue of inter-se seniority amongst district judges

According to the association, after implementation of recommendations of FJPC it was noticed that some of the recommendations created adverse effect ok career of judicial officers which is demoralising spirit of judicial officers particularly those recruited in cadre of civil judge as they've to go on performing stressful duty of a judge without any hope of getting timely promotion and financial upgradation.

The petitioner stated that in view of the terms of reference of the Commission, the SNJPC has to hear all stakeholders regarding service conditions of judges by exploring all topics and assist trial court judiciary to have better work environment, better safety and timely opportunities of promotions.

The petitioner association through its representation urged the Commission to remove the anomalies created by recommendations of FJPC and give opportunity to all stakeholders to submit their submissions regarding service conditions.

Background: The present plea was filed by Advocate Mayuri Raghuvanshi for constitution of All India Judicial Commission to review the service conditions of the judges of the district judiciary, and court had issued notice was on 14th Sept 2015. The Court had on 09/05/2017 passed an order directing the Union of India to set up a commission headed by Justice P. Venkatarama Reddi, former judge of the Supreme Court.

The Court had directed constitution of Second National Judicial Pay Commission, with following terms of reference:

• Evolve principles which should govern structure of pay and other emoluments to judicial officers from subordinate judiciary.

• Examine present structure of emoluments and service conditions, considering existing relativities in pay structure between officers from subordinate judiciary vis-a-vis other civil servants

• Examine work methods, environment, variety of allowance available in addition to pay and remove anomalies from implementation of earlier recommendations.

• Recommend interim reliefs to all categories of judicial officers

• Recommend mechanism for setting up of a Permanent commission to review pay and service conditions of members of subordinate judiciary periodically by an Independent commission exclusively constituted.

When the Commission started its functioning, it declared that it would function in three phases. In the first phase, it will decide about interim monitory relief as other government servants are already enjoying hike in salary because of implementation of seventh Central pay commission. In the second phase decided decided to consider pay, allowances and pension and third phase the issues regarding service conditions would be considered

The commission has submitted its report regarding pay, pension and allowances. Due to the Covid pandemic the commission was unable to resume hearing. The report on the third term of reference being the service conditions is yet to be submitted by the Commission.

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