BILL TO DOUBLE SC, HC JUDGES’ PAY 5

NEW DELHI: After raising the salaries of Central government employees by implementing the recommendations of 7th Pay Commission, the government has introduced a bill in the Lok Sabha on Thursday to hike the salaries of judges of the Supreme Court and the 24 high courts by over two folds.

Once the bill is cleared by Parliament and becomes a law, the Chief Justice of India will get a monthly salary of Rs 2.80 lakh from the present Rs one lakh.

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

The judges of the high courts, who get Rs 80,000 per month now, will get Rs 2.25 lakh per month, the bill states.

The salary hike, which is in line with the recommendations of the 7th Pay Commission for officers of all-india services, will come into force retrospectively from January 1, 2016.

The High Court and Supreme Court Judges (Salaries and Conditions of Service) Amendment Bill, 2017 also seeks to revise the rates of house rent allowance with effect from July 1, 2017 and the rates of sumptuary allowance with effect from September 22.

Law Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad, who piloted the bill, reached the Lok Sabha a little late, prompting the Speaker to ask him to be punctual. Prasad got late in the Lower House as he was busy in the Rajya Sabha.

In 2016, then Chief Justice of India TS Thakur had written to the government seeking a hike in the salaries of Supreme Court and high court judges.

As against the approved strength of 31, the Supreme Court has 25 judges. The high courts have an approved strength of 1,079, but 682 judges are handling work in the 24 high courts. The move will also benefit 2,500 retired judges.

Once the hike is effected, the salary of judges will be at par with those of the bureaucrats following the implementation of the recommendations of the 7th Pay Panel.

The salaries of Members of the Parliaments are not lesser as every member of the Lok Sabha gets Rs 1,40,000 in salary every month, which includes constituency allowances, office expenses and expenses for secretarial assistance. When Parliament is in session, they get a daily allowance of Rs.2,000. The members are also reimbursed for 34 flight trips and unlimited rail and road travel for the year on official business.