Supreme Court: The three Judge Bench comprising of CJI Dr. DY Chandrachud, JB Pardiwala and Manoj Misra, JJ. while dealing with a plea filed in 2015 by the All India Judges Association seeking review of the service conditions of the judicial officers of subordinate judiciary in India including but not limited to pay scale, retirement age, pension and other emoluments, flagged the concerns that the pension rates payable to District Judges in India are meagre and that such difficulties are not resolved even if District Judges are later elevated to High Courts.
The Court noted that the District Judges may only become High Court Judges late during the age of 55-60 years. Most of the period is spent in the judiciary only to be told that their years as a District Judge would not be counted for the payment of pension at rates applicable to High Court Judges. As per reports, the Court expressed concern that these rates are hardly enough to make ends meet, considering that the rate of pension for District Judges in certain cases is around Rs. 8,000 a month. Highlighting the concern over this issue, the Court said that this is something which needs to be looked at.
Source: Press
