Cabinet may consider setting up panel for pay hike of lower courts judges

A proposal to set up a panel to look into the salary hike of judges of lower courts is likely to come up before the Union Cabinet tomorrow, a senior functionary said.

The Law Ministry has proposed to appoint the Second National Judicial Pay Commission to recommend salary hikes for the 21,000 lower court judges.

Once the proposed commission gives its recommendations, the lower court judges/judicial officers will get a hike in their pay packages.

The judges and judicial officers of subordinate courts got the last pay hike in 2010, a three-fold jump, from their salaries decided in 1999.

The 2010 hike was applied retrospectively from January 1, 2006.

The proposed commission will be headed by former Supreme Court judge PV Reddi, according to the proposal.

The current entry level salary for a junior civil judge is Rs 45,000 while a senior judge gets nearly Rs 80,000.

The commission will submit its recommendations in early 2019 and the hike again is expected to be given with retrospective effect.

The move comes after directions from the Supreme Court in May. The first judicial pay commission, headed by Justice Jagannatha Shetty, was set up in March 1996 and it submitted its report in November 1999.

The Supreme Court had appointed a one-member committee under Justice E Padhmanabhan, a retired high court judge, who submitted his report in July 2009 recommending the three-fold hike.