Law ministry nod to panel to look into pay hike issue of lower

Judges of lower courts across the country are set to get a pay hike in the coming months with the law ministry finalising the appointment of a panel to recommend new salary structure for them and the proposal awaiting the Cabinet's nod.
The proposal to appoint the Second National Judicial Pay Commission to recommend salary hikes for the 21,000 lower court judges is set to be taken up by the union cabinet in the coming days.
The judges and judicial officers 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.
The current entry level salary for a junior civil judge is Rs 45000 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.