Rajya Sabha passes Bill to clarify when retired Supreme Court, High Court judges can avail of additional pension

The Rajya Sabha on Monday passed the High Court and Supreme Court Judges (Salaries and Conditions of Service) Amendment Bill, 2021 which clarifies when retired judges of the Supreme Court and High Courts shall be eligible for additional quantum of pension..After significant observations on the current status of the Indian judicial system and the possible steps to improve the same, the Rajya Sabha gave its assent to the Bill. Since this is a 'Money Bill', it was returned to the Lok Sabha..On December 8, the Lok Sabha, after a lengthy discussion, passed this Bill via voice vote. Before the passage of the Bill in the Rajya Sabha, Member of Parliament P Wilson stated:"It is high time we comprehensively revise the salaries of judges. A good salary is vital to attract talent from the Bar to take up judgeship. Currently, the monthly salary of a Supreme Court judge is less than a single day's fee of a leading advocate.".The Amendment Bill seeks to make clarifications to two laws, namely: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 the salaries and certain conditions of service of judges of the High Courts and the Supreme Court respectively. As per the Acts, 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 the introduction of an additional quantum of pension or family pension as the case may be.Accordingly, under the two Acts, the additional quantum of pension will be sanctioned on retired judges completing the age of 80 years, 85 years, 90 years, 95 years and 100 years, as the case may be..The 2021 Bill 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 pertaining to additional pension.The Gauhati High Court had held that the benefit of additional quantum of pension as per Section 17-B of the 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 had directed the Union to construe the word "from" as it appears in the two Acts 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.The Statement of Objects and Reasons reads that the Bill seeks to ensure that there is no scope for any other interpretation of the provisions of Section 17-B of the High Court Judges Act and Section 16-B of the Supreme Court Judges Act..Before the passage of the Bill, Union Law Minister Kiren Rijiju had told the Lok Sabha that the 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, he added."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 had stated..[Read Bill]