Team Herald
PANJIM: The State government has finally issued a notification for a two-fold hike in the salaries of High Court judges.
Supreme Court and High Court judges have got a two-fold salary hike with President Ram Nath Kovind giving his nod to a bill passed by Parliament in this regard in January 2018.
A notification issued by Joint Secretary (Law) Julio Barbosa Noronha says, “The High Court and Supreme Court Judges (Salaries and Conditions of Service) Amendment Act, 2018 (Central Act No. 10 of 2018), which has been passed by Parliament and assented to by the President on 25-01-2018 and published in the Gazette of India, Extraordinary, Part II, Section 1 dated 27-01-2018, is hereby published for the general information of the public.”
As per the new revision the Chief justice of High Court will draw a monthly salary of Rs 2.50 lakh, up from the current Rs 90,000, according to the notification by the law ministry. Judges of high courts, who get Rs 80,000 per month now, will get Rs 2.25 lakh per month.
As per the Act passed by Parliament, the Chief Justice of India will get a monthly salary of Rs 2.80 lakh, up from the present Rs one lakh. Similarly, judges of the Supreme Court will get Rs 2.5 lakh per month.
The salary hike, which is in line with the recommendations of the 7th Pay Commission for officers of all-India services, will come into force retrospectively from January 1, 2016.
The High Court and Supreme Court Judges (Salaries and Conditions of Service) Amendment Act, 2018 will also revise the rates of house rent allowance with effect from July 1, 2017 and the rates of sumptuary allowance with effect from September 22, 2017.
In 2016, then Chief Justice of India T S Thakur had written to the government seeking a hike in the salaries of Supreme Court and High Court judges.
The salary of judges will now be at par with those of the bureaucrats following the implementation of the recommendations of the 7th pay panel.
