Government may have to increase salaries of Supreme Court and High Court judges

NEW DELHI: The government may have to increase the salaries of Supreme Court and High Court judges within a week of implementing the Seventh Pay Commission recommendations to ensure pay parity in the ranks.

The new scales proposed by the pay commission places judges well below the bureaucrats, an anomaly that is usually bridged within a week of implementing the recommendations, said a Supreme Court official, who did not wish to be identified.

The last time round, the government had to spend Rs 40 crore by way of arrears to judicial officers when it implemented the Sixth Pay Commission recommendations, the official said.

The Seventh Pay Commission recommendations are likely to be implemented from May-June 2016, although they will technically come into effect from January 1. The notification regarding salaries of judges and judicial officers will have to come soon after, the official said.

A Supreme Court judge currently 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 the judges of the high court get a lesser amount. This amount does not include the rent-free residences provided to the judges while they are in service.