Supreme Court Allows Three Months Extension Of Tenure Of Second National Judicial Pay Commission

Supreme Court on Thursday allowed a three month extension of the tenure of the Second National Judicial Pay Commission, constituted by the Court to review and submits its reports with regard to the service conditions in the Subordinate Judiciary.

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 etc.

A Bench comprising CJI NV Ramana, Justice Surya Kant and Justice Hima Kohli issued the direction in pursuance of the request for an extension of term was made by the Amicus curiae Advocate Parameshwar on behalf of the Commission which has sought an extension to file the Report during this year.

The Amicus has informed the Court that the Chairman and Member of the Commission have decided not to draw any pay/honorarium/allowances and from April 2020 onwards no pay and allowances are being drawn.

It has been submitted on behalf of the Commission that the report has been completed few months back and sets out the following:

• The vast developments that have taken place since the First National Judicial Pay Commission gave its report and the decisions of Supreme Court on the subject.
• The observations and suggestions for consideration by High Courts on several aspects concerning court management and administration.
• The on-going endeavours to tackle the arrears and the practical problems encountered by the Courts, the existing deficiencies and the need for improvements in certain areas in order to provide necessary work environment are also briefly dealt with in this Report.

The Court had in March last year directed that the term of the members of the Second National Judicial Pay Commission be extended till 30th April 2021 which was scheduled to end on 31st March 2021.

A Bench headed by former CJI SA Bobde, Justice Bopanna had extended the terms of Justice (Retd.) P.V. Reddy and Justice (Retd.) R. Basant till 30th April and the term of the deputation of the Member Secretary so that he may attend the duties of the Commission.

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. 

Case Title: All India Judges Association vs Union of India & Ors 

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