The Supreme Court
Despite protests of a financial crisis, the Supreme Court on Friday put 20,000 judicial officers at ease by ordering the states and UTs to raise their salaries by 2.8 times so that they are almost on par with those of Central Civil Service employees. The court also ruled that trial judges’ financial independence is just as crucial as that of judges in high courts and the Supreme Court.
What does the bench say?
The grins should spread wider as a bench of Chief Justice D.Y. Chandrachud, Justices V. Ramasubramanian, and P.S. Narasimha ordered that the increased pay structure would be applied retroactively beginning January 1, 2016, and directed states and UTs to file affidavits of compliance by July 30. This is to confirm to the court that the pay arrears had been credited to the bank accounts of all 20,000 judicial officers on or before June 30.
The Second National Judicial Pay Commission’s recommendations were accepted almost entirely by the SC, which noted that the last time judicial officers’ pay was revised was in 2006 and that the Centre had accepted the 7th pay commission’s recommendations with effect from January 1, 2016.
No of positions vacant now?
Approximately 5,000 of the country’s 25,000 sanctioned judicial officer positions are vacant as of right now. The trial courts, the first venue available to petitioners for grievance resolution and criminal case adjudication, are writhing under a record-breaking 4.1 crore cases.
The compensation of judicial employees has to be enhanced commensurate with the pay of the judges of HCs, Justice Narasimha wrote in the 51-page judgment. The judicial officers were expected to get the same multiplier as the HC judges, which was set at 2.8. This court has regularly endorsed the precedent that the previous judicial pay committees established.
Pension for the Trial judges
It’s interesting that the maximum retirement pension for judicial personnel is set at Rs. 2.2 lakh. In a decision that would encourage lawyers to become judicial officers, the SC stated that because lawyers must have at least 10 years of experience in order to be appointed as district judges through the direct recruitment route, the pension for these district judges would be calculated taking into account their 10 years of experience as judicial officers. The recommendation that the gratuity cap for judicial officers is set at Rs 20 lakh was adopted by the SC.
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The district judiciary, according to Justice Narasimha, “is the foundation of the legal system. The independence of the judges working for the district judiciary is crucial to the functioning of the legal system. It’s crucial to guarantee their financial security and economic independence in order to preserve their objectivity.
