Supreme Court warns States of contempt action if order to pay district judges revised pension is not followed

The Supreme Court on Thursday warned that contempt of court action would be taken against Chief Secretaries of states that do not comply with its earlier directions to pay pension to district judges at revised rates from July 1 onwards..A Bench of Chief Justice of India (CJI) DY Chandrachud and Justices JB Pardiwala and Manoj Misra noted that some states and union territories were yet to comply with the Court's May 19 directive.Nevertheless, the Court granted time till December 6 for compliance, failing which the Chief Secretaries of defaulting states will have to be present before the Court on December 8. "Despite the peremptory directions of this court, states and union territories have not complied with orders of this Court wholly or partly. There is a default breach and non-compliance of the orders of this Court which warrants contempt against Chief Secretaries. Granting one last opportunity to comply. The compliance shall be by December 6, failing which the Chief secretaries of all the defaulting states shall be personally present on December 8," the Bench said..The Court also clarified that compliance would mean actually crediting the revised pension amounts to the bank accounts of judicial officers or their surviving spouses..On May 19, 2023, the Supreme Court had directed High Courts and competent authorities to make necessary amendments to service rules in conformity with certain recommendations accepted by the Court. This was to be done in the three months time. The order was passed on a plea to update the service conditions of judicial officers.Additionally, the Court had also directed that revised rates of pension that were approved by the Court should be paid to retired judicial officers with effect from July 1, 2023.Another direction was that the number of posts of district judges shall be increased to 35 per cent, as compared to the existing 25 per cent of cadre strength.Today, the Court called on all High Courts to comply with its directions by December 31 and to notify amendments to the service rules no later than by January 31, 2024..Another issue raised in the matter was whether pension of judicial officers based on the contributory scheme affects the financial dignity of the officers."The issue whether the payment of pension to judicial officers purely on the basis of Contributory Pension Scheme would be consistent with the norms of financial dignity and independence of judicial officers would merit consideration."The matter will be heard next in the third week of January 2024..[Read order]