Supreme Court: The Bench of J. Chelameswar and Sanjay Kishan Kaul, JJ directed the States to implement the recommendations of the Commission headed by Justice P. Venkatarama Reddy, former Supreme Court Judge and pay interim relief to the extent of 30% of increase in basic pay with accrued increments to all categories/ranks of Judicial Officers.
The other recommendations of the Commission are as follows:
- The said increased in Pay shall be treated as a separate component and no D.A. is payable thereon.
- Arrears shall be worked out with effect from 01.01.2016 on the above basis.
- On the same basis, the interim relief shall be provided to the pensioners and family pensioners with effect from 01.01.2016 and the arrears to be paid accordingly.
- Wherever the benefit of interim relief has already been granted, the Judicial Officers in those States/UTs can exercise their option to continue to be governed by such Orders.
- The amounts payable by way of interim relief now proposed are liable to the adjusted against the future determination pursuant to the final report submitted by the Commission.
The Court directed that the interim relief regarding the pay of the Judicial Officers as recommended by the Commission be implemented by all the concerned States and Union Territories w.e.f. 1st of May, 2018 and the arrears payable pursuant to the abovementioned recommendations shall be paid on or before 30th June, 2018.
The Court took note of the fact the Committee faced certain difficulties in the process of executing the task entrusted to them, the Court directed that:
- The Chairman and Members of the Commission should receive emoluments/pay and allowances from 01.06.2017 as they had commenced work in the first week of June, 2017.
- The Secretary should receive emoluments w.e.f. 01.09.2017, as he had commenced work on 16.08.2017.
[All India Judges Association v. Union of India, 2018 SCC OnLine SC 312, order dated 27.03.2018]