Cabinet approves plan to hike pay of Supreme Court, HC judges

New Delhi: The judges of the Supreme Court and the 24 high courts are set to get a salary hike as the Union council of ministers on Wednesday approved a proposal in this regard.  

According to the proposal cleared by the Union Cabinet on Wednesday, the Chief Justice of India (CJI) will get Rs 2.80 lakh per month and judges of the Supreme Court and chief justices of the high court will get Rs 2.50 lakh a month. Judges of the high courts will get Rs 2.25 lakh per month, a senior government functionary added, refusing to go on record.

The increased salary and pension for retired judges will be effective from January 1, 2016. Finance minister Arun Jaitley a draft of the legislation has been approved and it will be our endeavour to pass it in the forthcoming winter session of Parliament.  

Meanwhile, Union Law and justice minister Ravi Shankar Prasad said that a bill would soon be introduced in Parliament to effect the pay hike.

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

A SC judge at present gets Rs 1.5 lakh a month in hand after all deductions from salary and allowances. The CJI gets a higher amount than this, while judges of the high courts get a lesser amou-nt. Rent-free accommodation is provided to judges while they are in service.

In 2016, then chief justice of India T.S. Thakur had written to the government seeking a hike in the salaries of SC and high court judges.

As against the approved strength of 31, the SC has 25 judges. The high courts have an approved strength of 1,079, but 682 judges are today handling work in 24 high courts. The move will also benefit 2,500 retired judges, Prasad said. Once the hike is effected, the salary of judges will be at par with those of bureaucrats following the implementation of the recommendations of the Seventh Pay Commission.