The Union Cabinet approved the constitution of the 15th Finance Commission which is tasked with the responsibility of assessing the country’s tax resources and recommending a formula for distributing the resources amongst the states.
Law Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad confirmed this week that the Supreme Court Judges and judges belonging to the 24 high courts will be getting a salary hike, after the Union cabinet approved a proposal for the same.
Prasad said that two bill would be tabled in the Parliament to effect the proposed hike.
Under the proposal the chief justice of India (CJI) will receive monthly salary of Rs2.80 lakh while the judges of the Supreme Court and the chief justices of the various high courts will now receive Rs 2.50 lakh per month. High court judges will receive Rs 2.25 lakh a month, according to a government source.
The salary increase will come into effect from January 1, 2018.
Currently a Supreme Court judge receives in hand around Rs 1.5 lakh per month after all deductions. The CJI gets more than this amount while high court judges get lower. All judges receive free accommodation while in service.
Last year, the then CJI T S Thakur had requested the government to hike the salaries of both Supreme Court and high court judges.
Bill Expected To Be Passed In Parliament’s Winter Session
Finance Minister Arun Jaitley has said that the government will aim to get the bill passed in the upcoming winter session of Parliament.
With the salary hike, the salaries of the judges will be equal to the salaries of bureaucrats post the implementation of the Seventh Pay Commission recommendations.
Currently the Supreme Court has a strength of 25 judges as against the approved number of 31. High courts have just 682 judges across 24 high courts against the approved strength of 1,079.
Prasad noted that the move will benefit nearly 2,500 retired judges as well, and their pension and gratuity will be increased after the implementation of the Seventh Pay Commission.
