Cabinet nod for salary hike of judges

Giving nod to the proposed salary hike of the members of higher judiciary in view of huge pay hike for the central government employees as per the Sixth Pay Commission, the government has decided to increase salaries of the judges of Supreme Court and High Courts.

The Chief Justice of India will now get a monthly salary of Rs 1 lakh plus dearness allowance (DA), while judges of Supreme Court and chief justices of High Courts will draw a salary of Rs 90,000 besides DA. The judges of High Court will get a salary of Rs 80,000 pm plus DA.

The revised pay scale will be effective from January 01, 2006. The arrears will be paid in two ways: 40% in the current financial year and the remaining 60% in the next financial year.

This would cost the government’s exchequer, as the Law Ministry has estimated, an additional expenditure of Rs 46 crore, which includes Rs 4 crore recurring expenditure per annum and Rs 42 crore as arrears.

The government has also decided to double the existing limit of both sumptuary allowance and furnishing allowance for all the Supreme Court and High Court Judges. This will be effective from September 01, 2008.

Since the higher judiciary's emoluments can only be revised through an Act of Parliament, a bill will soon be introduced in Parliament.

K G Balakrishnan, in a letter to the ministry in July, had sought a hike of two to three times the present monthly salaries of judges of the higher judiciary. The proposal had been under consideration by the Law Ministry.

The CJI, at present, gets a monthly salary of Rs 33,000, which he had suggested raising to Rs 1.1 lakh. And for other apex court judges and chief justices of High Courts, the CJI had suggested a monthly salary of Rs 1 lakh. While for the High Court judges, a monthly salary of Rs 90,000 had been proposed.