CJI to form panel on pay hike for judges, pension parity

NEW DELHI: Chief Justice of India will soon constitute a committee to look into salary hikes of judges and make recommendation on their uniform post-retirement benefits across the country. At present different states have different rules.
At the recently-held chief ministers and chief justices conference in the capital a representation was made by the judiciary seeking higher pay and perks and post-retirement benefits.
A source said the CJI will constitute a committee which will look into the matter and make recommendations which may come before the government’s own 7th Pay Commission constituted for government servants.
There is disparity in computation of pension of judges at present. Those coming from lower judiciary and having more number of years as judges get paid more pension than an advocate elevated to the higher judiciary towards the fag end of his career.
In 2009, the government had revised the salary of judges where the CJI’s had a fixed scale of Rs 1 lakh, Rs 90,000 for Supreme Court judges and high court chief justices and Rs 80,000 for HC judges.
The higher judiciary had demanded more pay for SC judges than the cabinet secretary. After the 6th Pay Commission, the cabinet secretary’s salary was fixed at a scale of Rs 90,000. All perks like house, cars and assistants provided at their residence offices are in addition to the pay.
The judges have, however, demanded doubling of their pay and pension benefits. This included specific reimbursement for their travel and hiring office assistants post-retirement.
Increasing emoluments of judges may act as an incentive for more competent advocates joining the judiciary which currently has huge vacancies.
While the lower judiciary has more than 4,400 judges position vacant, the vacancy in the high courts is as high as 35%. That means more than 348 judges’ position are vacant in 24 HCs which have a sanctioned strength of 984.