Judges Pay Revision: Supreme Court To Summon Chief Secretaries If States Fail To Respond To Pay Commission Report [Read Order]

The Supreme Court on Wednesday passed a peremptory order that the State Governments should file their replies to the recommendations of the Second National Judicial Pay Commission within a period of five weeks from today.

If the States default on filing the replies within the said time, the Chief Secretaries will have to personally appear before the court on the notified date, ordered a bench led by the Chief Justice of India.

The bench expressed surprise at the fact that 20 states have failed to respond to the final report submitted by the Pay Commission in January 2020, which recommended hike in the pay, pension and allowances to judicial officers across the country.

"We are surprised that 20 states have not filed their responses. The matter is of seminal importance for the subordinate judiciary in the country", stated the bench comprising CJI S A Bobde, Justices AS Bopanna and V Ramasubramanian in the order passed in the case All India Judges Association v Union of India and others.

The bench also extended the tenure of the commission headed by Justice P V Reddi, former judge of the Supreme Court, till January 31, 2021.

The bench further directed that the proposals submitted by the Commission for sanction of amounts for payment to experts and consultants may be processed.

Also, appropriate honorarium shall be paid to Justice V Reddy and Senior Advocate R Basant(Member of the Commission), ordered the bench.

The top court also extended the term of the Member-Secretary of the Commission, Vinay Kumar Gupta, who is on deputation from Delhi Higher Judicial Service, till January 31, 2021.

Furthermore, based on the request of amicus curiae Senior Advocate P S Narasimha, the bench issued notice to the Attorney General for India, considering the importance of the matter.

The Commission submitted its final report recommending increase in the pay, pension and allowances of judicial officers on January 29, 2020.

The Commission was constituted by the Supreme Court as per its orders in the All India Judges Association case. On November 16, 2017, the Ministry of Law and Justice had issued the notification in that regard.

The recommendations made by the Commission are applicable to the Judicial officers throughout the country.

Some of the salient features of the recommendations are :

Pay

As per the revised pay structure evolved by the Commission, the Junior Civil Judge/First Class Magistrate whose staring pay is Rs.27,700/- will now get Rs.77,840/-.

The next higher post of Senior Civil Judge starts with the pay of Rs.1,11,000/- and that of the District Judge Rs.1,44,840/-.

The highest pay which a District Judge (STS) will get, is Rs.2,24,100/-.

It has recommended the adoption of Pay Matrix which has been drawn up by applying the multiplier of 2.81 to the existing pay, commensurate with the percentage of increase of pay of High Court Judges.

Pension

Pension at 50% of last drawn pay worked out on the basis of proposed revised pay scales is recommended w. e. f. 1-1-2016. The family pension will be 30% of the last drawn pay. Additional quantum of pension to commence on completing the age of 75 years (instead of 80 years) and percentages at various stages thereafter are increased.

The existing ceiling of retirement gratuity and death gratuity to be increased by 25% when the DA reaches 50%.

Nodal officers to be nominated by the District Judges to assist the pensioners/family pensioners.

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