Lok Sabha passes bill to clarify issues of additional pension of retired Supreme Court, High Court judges

The Lok Sabha on Wednesday passed the High Court and Supreme Court Judges (Salaries and Conditions of Service) Amendment Bill 2021 to clarify when retired judges of the Supreme Court and High Courts shall be eligible for additional pension..The Amendment Bill seeks to amend the following two laws:- High Court Judges (Salaries and Conditions of Service) Act, 1954;- Supreme Court Judges (Salaries and Conditions of Service) Act, 1958.These two laws were enacted to regulate salaries and certain conditions of service of the Judges of High Courts and the Supreme Court respectively.Both the Acts particularly provide that every retired judge or his/ her family after his/ her death, shall be entitled to pension or family pension respectively. It was by virtue of the High Court and Supreme Court Judges (Salaries and Conditions of Service) Amendment Act, 2009, that both the Acts under Section 17-B (for High Courts) and Section 16-B (for Supreme Court) saw that the entitlement to an additional quantum of pension or family pension as the case may be, was in accordance with the scale specified therein.Accordingly, the additional quantum of pension under the two Acts to retired Judges of the High Courts and Supreme Court is being sanctioned on completing the age of 80 years, 85 years, 90 years, 95 years and 100 years, as the case may be, and the additional quantum increases with age from 20% to 100% of the pension or family pension.The High Court and Supreme Court Judges (Salaries and Conditions of Service) Amendment Bill 2021 seeks to clarify the legislative intent behind insertion of Section 17-B and Section 16-B respectively in the aforesaid Acts which was to provide benefit of an additional quantum of pension to a retired judge from the first day of the month in which he completes the minimum age scale as stated above.This clarification comes after the Gauhati High Court in 2018 and the Madhya Pradesh High Court in 2020 took different views with regard to the provisions of additional pension.The Gauhati High Court had held that the benefit of additional quantum of pension as per Section 17-B of the aforesaid High Court Judges Act in the first slab would be available to a retired Judge from the first day of his 80th year.On the other hand, the Madhya Pradesh High Court in writ petitions moved by the Association of Retired Judges of Supreme Court and High Court of India, had directed the Union to construe the word "from" as it appears on the slab under Section 16-B of the 1958 Act and Section 17-B of the 1954 Act as the first day of entering the minimum age of the slab (i.e., 80, 85, 90, 95 and 100 years) along with other consequential benefits.As per the Statement of Objects and Reasons of the 2021 Amendment Bill, the Bill seeks to ensure that there is no scope for any other interpretation of the provisions of Section 17-B of the said High Court Judges Act and in Section 16-B of the said Supreme Court Judges Act.Notably, before the passage of the bill, Law Minister Kiren Rijiju told the House that this Amendment Bill does not in any way affect the salary and pension of judges but only inserts a clarification. The bill only seeks to rectify an anomaly to end any confusion."If the judgment of the Court on a law misinterprets the intention of the legislature, it is the duty of Parliament to ensure that the said law is made more specified," the Law Minister stated.After a lengthy discussion, Lok Sabha passed the Bill via voice vote..[Read Bill]