Why CJI Dattu’s comment on judicial salaries is only one part of a complex equation

It has been said time and again that the vacancies prevalent in the country’s judiciary is a major contributor to sky-high pendency figures. And the number of vacancies is certainly cause for concern. One of the reasons for these high vacancies is the judicial pay structure, a point alluded to by no less than the Chief Justice of India, HL Dattu..Speaking at the recently concluded Chief Justices Conference, CJI Dattu said that,.“If the youth does not see this judiciary as a financially viable career option, it may choose to stay away from the same.”.Lamenting the fact that the best minds from top law schools do not opt to become judges, Justice Dattu went on to say that,.“If one were to simply compare the salary and perks of sitting judges in India to any other modern democracy, or even compare the same to that of fresh graduates in Indian law firms, the stark reality would be evident.”.In essence, CJI Dattu’s argument was that the low pay structure dissuades law graduates from joining the bench. However, this is just part of the problem; after all, to say that money is the sole determining factor in making career choices would be a gross oversight..So why do law school graduates tend to stay away from joining the judiciary after they graduate? There are several other reasons that merit consideration, some of which are discussed below..Grab that cash and make a stash.As per the latest recruitment statistics, a fresher law graduate is offered an average annual salary of 14.7 lakh (including bonus) by the country’s top law firms. In comparison, a Junior Civil judge receives a salary of around 3.3 lakh per annum (including increments)..While the drastic difference between these two numbers may substantiate Chief Justice Dattu’s statement, is this singular focus on the difference obfuscating the bigger picture?.For example, not every corporate lawyer gets paid astronomical amounts as starting salaries. Smaller and lesser known firms (and there are plenty of those) provide a starting salary of around 25,000-40,000 rupees a month. Some of them make as much or even lesser than what the junior civil judge would make..Not to forget, that apart from their salary, judges are entitled to perks like free accommodation, fuel allowances, subsidized electricity and water supplies, telephone allowances, and subsidies for their children’s education..Furthermore, the law firm salaries quoted above only apply to the top 10 or 20 students of a few, select law schools. Most of the thousands of students graduating from the 800-odd law universities in the country, however, do not get offered these pay packages. Therefore, to say that the lure of corporate law firm salaries dissuades law grads from joining the Bench is, well, incorrect..One of the other arguments is that the law firm salaries are the only option for those students who have taken loans to fund an increasingly expensive legal education. However, a recent survey we conducted revealed that 85% of law students do not opt for a loan at all..Herd mentality?.In most discussions of why law firms seem to have the lure they do, the role that peer pressure plays is rarely acknowledged. Often, law students who are unsure about what path to take end up opting for a corporate job for this very reason..Ajay Gudavarthy, Assistant Professor at JNU, has been quite the critic of the way the five-year law course, or rather the atmosphere in these newer institutes..“They have these placement slots. If you are in the first 5 ranks, you get placed here, the next twenty ranks there etc… And you can see the clear hierarchy – the bright lot never go [for legal aid clinics]. It’s the middle and lower lot who go for such programs, human rights etc. You already have a varna system in law schools, you are already stigmatized within law schools…You take the brightest faculty, she will be teaching corporate law, the less bright, human rights. And social sciences are even further reduced, further stigmatized.”.One need not necessarily agree with the varna comparison, but there is certainly some element of truth to what Gudavarthy says. Sharing what he has been told by his own students who opted for a corporate law firm, he says,.“Many of my students themselves feel that this is not very challenging, it is monotonous but then they also say that they feel trapped.”.You could argue that the decision to join a law firm was not an informed one, one that was based more on what you were expected to do rather than what you wanted to do. Perhaps, just perhaps, it is the fear of falling into an unfairly branded category, that prevents impressionable law students from giving the judiciary a second thought. It is a thought process that is observable at other levels as well, for instance it is the same mentality that considers arts students inferior to those who take up science at the school level..Playing the waiting game.Another possible reason why the judiciary may not be a favoured career choice is because it takes a substantial amount of time to rise through the ranks. There are fixed time periods before the completion of which a judge cannot climb to the next rung of the ladder. For example it takes ten years for a Junior Civil Judge to become a District Judge. In cases of direct recruitment, you need a minimum of 7 years of litigation practice to qualify for the Higher Judicial Services exam..Students, especially from the five-year course may not be prepared to go in for the long haul, especially when corporate law firms offer a far shorter promotion track..Also, a judge has a transferable job. This means having to relocate with the family to different towns and cities on a fairly regular basis. The lack of an option to set up base, especially during the latter years, is something worth considering..Islands unto themselves.Thirdly, a judge’s life is certainly not the easiest. Judges are expected to be paragons of integrity and objectivity. To achieve this standard, they usually have to sacrifice their social lives, lest their judgment be clouded by bias. In High Court of Rajasthan vs. Ramesh Chand Paliwal, it was held that,.“Judges have been described as ‘hermits’…they have to live and behave like hermits, who have no desire or aspiration, having shed it through penance. Their mission is to supply light and not heat.”.A practical example of this can be seen from Justice Ahmadi’s interview,.Seeking some time to consult his family, Ahmadi said that he needed to know if his wife would be willing to live, “the life of a judge’s wife”. It would be a life filled with a number of restrictions. Finances would also be hit, with a judge’s salary far lower than what Ahmadi was making at the Bar..The fact of the matter is that very few people are cut out for the kind of life a judge leads. Others simply do not know enough..Professor Ved Kumari of Delhi University’s Law Centre and former head of the Delhi Judicial Academy addressed this very issue,.“Despite teaching law for so many decades, I had no idea what it means to be a judge. No one actually thinks about that what judges go through while writing judgments. Judges are supposed to only speak through their judgments so their worldview is completely hidden in the Indian scenario.Who you can talk to, what you can talk about, are they a part of civil society or are they removed from this once they become a judge?”.Lastly, and perhaps most importantly, even if law firms hire all those from the national law universities, that number is merely a drop in the ocean of law students from 800-odd law universities across the country. This is something our reader succinctly put:.Therefore, the argument that these students are not opting for the judiciary merely because what law firm’s pay no longer holds true..Lawyers and judges alike have stated ad nauseam the importance of young law graduates joining the judiciary to fill up the vacancies therein. Justice Dattu pointed out that there are only 13 judges per 10 lakh people in India, whereas in the US, there are 100 judges for the same amount of people. The big questions are – will merely increasing salaries of judges incentivize law students to join the Bench? And what else needs to be done to encourage law students to become judges?