New Delhi: The judges of top courts of the country will get salary hike as the Union cabinet on Wednesday approved a proposal in this regard. The judges of the Supreme Court and the 24 high courts are set to get a salary hike.
On the judges pension and pay hike, Jaitley’s colleague, law minister Ravi Shankar Prasad, said the pay hike will be in effect from January 1, 2016 and cover 31 SC judges, 1,079 HC judges and 2,500 retired judges. A bill would be introduced in Parliament to effect the pay hike.
In 2016 then Chief Justice of India T S Thakur had written to the government seeking a hike in salaries of Supreme Court and high court judges. A Supreme Court 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 the judges of the high courts get a lesser amount. Rent-free accommodation is provided to the judges while they are in service. The matter was already under the consideration of the government after the recommendations of the Seventh Pay Commission, .