NEW DELHI: Brushing aside cries of financial crunch, the Supreme Court on Friday brought smiles on the faces of 20,000 judicial officers by directing the states and UTs to increase their pay by 2.8 times to bring them almost on par with the salaries of the Central Civil Services officers, while ruling that financial independence of trial judges are as important as those in HCs and the SC.
The smiles should get wider as a bench of Chief Justice D Y Chandrachud, Justices V Ramasubramanian and P S Narasimha ordered that the hiked pay structure would be implemented retrospectively from January 1, 2016, and directed states and UTs to file affidavits of compliance by July 30 – that is to report back to court that the pay arrears have been credited to the bank accounts of all 20,000 judicial officers on or before June 30.
Accepting almost all suggestions made by amicus curiae K Parameshwar on the recommendations of the Second National Judicial Pay Commission, the SC said the judicial officers’ pay revision took place last in 2006 and that the Centre had accepted 7th pay commission recommendations with effect from January 1, 2016.
At present there are around 25,000 sanctioned posts of judicial officers across the country, of which nearly 5,000 are lying vacant. The trial courts, the first forum accessible by litigants for redressal of grievances and adjudicating criminal cases, are groaning under an unprecedented case load of 4.1 crore.
Writing the 51-page judgment, Justice Narasimha said, “The pay of judicial officers is to be increased commensurate with the pay of the judges of HCs. When the HC judges were granted a multiplier of 2.8, the judicial officers were also to be granted the same multiplier. This has been the precedent set by the previous judicial pay commissions and endorsed by this court repeatedly”.
Interestingly, the ceiling of pension for judicial officers on retirement is fixed at Rs 2.2 lakh. In a decision that would encourage lawyers to become judicial officers, the SC said as the lawyers are required to have a minimum 10 years practice to be eligible for appointment as district judges through the direct recruitment route, these district judges’ pension would be calculated taking into consideration their 10 years practice as judicial officers. The SC accepted the recommendation for fixing the gratuity limit for judicial officers at Rs 20 lakh.
Justice Narasimha said, “The district judiciary is the backbone of the judicial system. Vital to the judicial system is the independence of the judicial officers serving in the district judiciary. To secure their impartiality, it is important to ensure their financial security and economic independence.”
The smiles should get wider as a bench of Chief Justice D Y Chandrachud, Justices V Ramasubramanian and P S Narasimha ordered that the hiked pay structure would be implemented retrospectively from January 1, 2016, and directed states and UTs to file affidavits of compliance by July 30 – that is to report back to court that the pay arrears have been credited to the bank accounts of all 20,000 judicial officers on or before June 30.
Accepting almost all suggestions made by amicus curiae K Parameshwar on the recommendations of the Second National Judicial Pay Commission, the SC said the judicial officers’ pay revision took place last in 2006 and that the Centre had accepted 7th pay commission recommendations with effect from January 1, 2016.
At present there are around 25,000 sanctioned posts of judicial officers across the country, of which nearly 5,000 are lying vacant. The trial courts, the first forum accessible by litigants for redressal of grievances and adjudicating criminal cases, are groaning under an unprecedented case load of 4.1 crore.
Writing the 51-page judgment, Justice Narasimha said, “The pay of judicial officers is to be increased commensurate with the pay of the judges of HCs. When the HC judges were granted a multiplier of 2.8, the judicial officers were also to be granted the same multiplier. This has been the precedent set by the previous judicial pay commissions and endorsed by this court repeatedly”.
Interestingly, the ceiling of pension for judicial officers on retirement is fixed at Rs 2.2 lakh. In a decision that would encourage lawyers to become judicial officers, the SC said as the lawyers are required to have a minimum 10 years practice to be eligible for appointment as district judges through the direct recruitment route, these district judges’ pension would be calculated taking into consideration their 10 years practice as judicial officers. The SC accepted the recommendation for fixing the gratuity limit for judicial officers at Rs 20 lakh.
Justice Narasimha said, “The district judiciary is the backbone of the judicial system. Vital to the judicial system is the independence of the judicial officers serving in the district judiciary. To secure their impartiality, it is important to ensure their financial security and economic independence.”