Anomaly in pension benefits for HC judges from bar will go

NEW DELHI: The Union Cabinet today removed anomalies in pensionary benefits of high court judges elevated from the bar, thereby implementing an order of the Supreme Court.

For pensionary benefits, ten years practice as advocate will be added as qualifying service for High Court judges elevated from the bar, as ordered by the Supreme Court in a judgment in March last year.

The Cabinet decision today seeks to give effect to this judgment.

"We have accepted the order of the Supreme Court in toto," highly-placed sources said after the Cabinet meeting.

In the judgment, the apex court had said in order to remove arbitrariness in the matter of pension of High Court judges elevated from the bar, the relief should be reckoned from April one, 2004.

As a consequence, the government will bring a bill in Parliament amending the law relating to high court judges salaries and conditions in service, the sources said.

The main question that arose before the Supreme Court in the case P Ramakrishnam Raju Vs Union of India and others was whether high court judges who were appointed under Article 217 (2) (b) of the Constitution on retirement are entitled for an addition of ten years to their service for the purposes of their pension.