Bill to increase salaries of judges introduced in LS

NEW DELHI: A bill to hike the salaries of judges of the Supreme Court and the 24 high courts was introduced in the Lok Sabha on Thursday.

The High Court and Supreme Court Judges (Salaries and Conditions of Service) Amendment Bill, 2017, proposes over a twofold increase in the current salary of judges, which is marginally below the hikes recommended last year by a committee of three judges constituted by the then Chief Justice of India (CJI) TS Thakur.

Judges continue to be paid according to the sixth pay commission.

Their salaries were last hiked in 2009 but with retrospective

ONCE THE BILL IS CLEARED AND BECOMES A LAW, THE CJI WILL GET A MONTHLY SALARY OF ₹2.80 LAKH UP FROM THE PRESENT ₹1 LAKH

effect from 2006.

Once the bill is cleared by Parliament and becomes a law, the CJI will get a monthly salary of ₹2.80 lakh up from the present ₹1 lakh.

Similarly, judges of the Supreme Court and chief justices of the high courts will draw a monthly salary of ₹2.50 lakh up from the current ₹90,000.

High court judges , who make ₹80,000 per month now, will make ₹2.25 lakh per month, the bill states.

When the bill becomes law, the house rent allowances for judges will be hiked retrospectively from July 1, 2017, approximately to the tune of two and a half times of the current allowance.

The revised pensions too will be paid from 2016, benefitting over 2,500 retired judges.

The number of serving judges in the country is a little more than 700 against a sanctioned strength of over 1100.

In 2016, then CJI TS Thakur had written to the government seeking a 300% hike in the salaries of judges.

The bill proposing an increase in the salaries was introduced by law minister Ravi Shankar Prasad in the lower house and is expected to come up for discussion next week.