'Some Retire From District Judiciary With A Monthly Pension Of Only Rs.15K' : Supreme Court Expresses Concerns To Union
Anmol Kaur Bawa
8 Aug 2024 9:24 AM GMT
The Supreme Court today (August 8) flagged concerns over the issue of meagre retirement pensions given to the District Judges.
The bench comprising CJI DY Chandrachud and Justices JB Pardiwala and Manoj Misra was hearing the All India Judges Association Case relating to the implementation of the Second National Judicial Pay Commission.
Attorney General for India R Venkataramani requested for time to address the issue regarding TDS deduction on the allowances paid to judicial officers. While agreeing to defer the hearing, the Chief Justice shared some thoughts regarding the meagre pension of judicial officers.
"Some of them are from district judiciary retiring with a pension of only Rs 15,000/," CJI said.
"We are the guardians of the District Judiciary. As guardians of the district judiciary, what do we do ?"
CJI requested the AG and the Solicitor General to "sit down together and find a way out".
The CJI recalled a case where a District Court Judge was elevated to the High Court and was suffering from cancer. Because of the certain lag in the timing of her elevation, she was not getting pension at par with other High Court judges. The Supreme Court then intervened in the matter and provided her relief.
Referring to the above example, the CJI stressed that judges are elevated to the High Court at the age 56-58 years from lower judiciary and retire with a meagre pension making it difficult for them to live a comfortable pots-retirement life.
"Some of these are extremely hard cases, we have a slew of petitions by district judges who come into the High Court. We tell district judges that for every year of service we will get Rs.96000 Rs, which is Rs.8,000 a month. Now typically what happens is that the district judges come to the High Court for anywhere between 56 -58 years. They get paid 8,000 Rs a month and then they retire with a pension of Rs.25,000-30,000 a month."
The CJI added that considering how the majority of the life of such judges is spent in the district courts, it would not be easy for them to get lucrative arbitration offers upon retirement.
"Look at their social profile also, they are not going to get commercial work as arbitrators," CJI said.
"We are conscious of the financial implications in other segments. But handle this differently. This is about the district judiciary, you see," CJI told the AG and SG.
Related other reports :
Case Title: All India Judges Association v. UoI And Ors. WP(C) No. 643/2015
