Salary paid to head of two tribunals inadequate, says HC

Delhi High Court today termed as "thoroughly inadequate" a salary of Rs 35,915 that the city government proposes to pay to a retired Additional District Judge, who is the presiding officer of two appellate tribunals, and directed an immediate enhancement.
"The interim payment of Rs 35,915 prima facie appears to be thoroughly inadequate as only basic pay has been taken into account and by excluding other allowances, including dearness allowance which is 107 per cent of basic.
"Therefore, we direct respondents (Delhi government) to immediately upgrade interim payment and draw up terms and conditions....," a bench of justices B D Ahmed and Sanjeev Sachdeva said.

The terms and conditions of appointment have to be same as those framed for deputing sitting judges to these posts, the court said, granting the government four weeks to carry out the exercise and listed the matter for further hearing on March 11.
The bench made the observations after Delhi government, through advocates Zubeda Begum and Sana Ansari, said it has ordered release of Rs 35,915 per month, with effect from May 1, 2014, as salary of the presiding officer of Delhi Schools Tribunal (DST) and State Transport Appellate Tribunal (STAT).
The submission was opposed by advocate Sanjeev Ralli, appearing for the tribunals' head, who contended that what the government was releasing now was basic pay minus pension and without taking into account the various allowances.

Delhi government, on the other hand, contended that the same amount was paid to the judicial officers who had headed the tribunals earlier. The bench noted that earlier heads of the tribunals were sitting judicial officers.

On January 21, the court had come down heavily on the city government for not paying the salary of retired ADJ V K Maheshwari, the presiding officer of the DST and STAT since his appointment on May 1 last year. It had termed as "ridiculous" the treatment meted out to him.
The petition, while claiming that the judge has not been paid any salary since his appointment last May, contended that no guidelines have been framed for laying down the terms and conditions of appointment to such posts and sought directions to the authorities to initiate and complete this process.

Maheshwari, a retired officer of Delhi Higher Judicial Service, was appointed the presiding officer of DST for three years and later given the additional charge of STAT as well.