PIL Regarding Pension Of Judicial Officers At Bombay HC Transferred To SC

A public interest litigation filed by activist Vihar Dhurve regarding pensionary benefits to judicial officers has been transferred to the Supreme Court.

A bench of Justice J Chelameswar and Justice SK Kaul issued notice to the Registrar General of the Bombay High Court as well as the petitioner while hearing a special leave petition filed by Maharashtra following a judgment of high court striking down the New Pension Scheme brought in by them.

A bench headed by Justice AS Oka had struck down the state government’s notification brought in through a Government Resolution dated October 31, 2005 (cut-off date), and held the same as not applicable to judicial officers in the state. The high court had ruled that the new pension scheme was in breach of the earlier Supreme Court orders.

The Supreme Court bench heard Additional Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, appearing on behalf of the state of Maharashtra, and senior advocate BH Marlapalle, who was formerly a judge of the Bombay High Court and is appearing for the Maharashtra State Judges Association in the matter.

In the order dated December 1, the bench said: “Having regard to the nature of the matter, we deem it appropriate to transfer the Public Interest Litigation No.188 of 2015 pending before the High Court of Judicature at Bombay to this Court as this Court is already dealing with the general issue of the service conditions of the judicial officers of this country. Some directions in this regard were issued earlier by this Court on 9th May, 2017 in W.P.(C) No.643/2015 constituting a Committee headed by Hon'ble Mr. Justice P. Venkatarama Reddi, a former Judge of this Court.”

The National Judicial Pay Commission for sub-ordinate judiciary was set up in May this year by another bench, also headed by Justice J Chelameswar, with former Supreme Court Judge Justice PV Reddy as its chairman and former Kerala High Court judge and senior Supreme Court lawyer R Basant as member.