Cabinet Approves Appointment Of Second National Judicial Pay Commission For Subordinate Judiciary

The Union Cabinet chaired by the Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi has approved appointment of Second National Judicial Pay Commission (SNJPC) for Subordinate Judiciary in the country.

The Commission is to be headed by Shri Justice (Retd.J P.Venkatrama Reddi, former Judge of Supreme Court of India. Shri R. Basant, Senior Advocate and former Judge of the Kerala High Court is the Member of the Commission.

In May, 2017 he Bench comprising of Justices J Chelameswar and Abdul Nazeer has nominated Justice PV Reddy as commission Chairman and R.Basant as member.

Supreme Court directed the Commission to complete the collection of data and make appropriate recommendations and submit a copy of the same to the Court preferably within a period of 18 months.

“The Commission would be assisted by a Member Secretary who would be chosen by the Commission, preferably a Judicial Officer either in service or retired. In case the Commission decides to choose a serving Judicial Officer of any State, the concerned High Court and the State would make available the services of such an officer and treat such officer to be on deputation to the Commission”, states the Order.

The order was passed in a petition filed by All India Judges Association.

As per the press release issued by the Government the Commission will examine the present structure of emoluments and conditions of service of Judicial Officers in the States and UTs.

"The Commission aims to evolve the principles which would govern pay structure and other emoluments of Judicial Officers belonging to the Subordinate Judiciary of the country. It will examine the work methods and work environment as also the variety of allowance and benefits in kind that are available to Judicial Officers in addition to pay and to suggest rationalization and simplification thereof.

The Commission will devise its own procedures and formulate modalities necessary for accomplishing the task. The Commission also aims at making the pay scales and conditions of service of Judicial Officers uniform throughout the country.

The recommendations of the Commission will help in promoting efficiency in Judicial Administration, optimizing the size of judiciary etc. and to remove anomalies created in implementation of earlier recommendations".