Supreme Court flags meagre monthly pension of district judges; urges Centre to examine

The Supreme Court on Thursday reiterated concerns that the pension rates payable to district judges in India are meagre, while also pointing out that such difficulties are not resolved even if district judges are later elevated to High Courts. .The Bench of Chief Justice of India (CJI) DY Chandrachud and Justices JB Pardiwala and Manoj Misra took note of this aspect while dealing with a plea filed in 2015 by the All India Judges Association.CJI DY Chandrachud today pointed out that district judges may only become High Court judges late in their working years, around the age of 55-60 years. They often spend their entire life in the judiciary only to be told their years as a district judge would not be counted for the payment of pension at rates applicable to High Court judges, the CJI noted.The Court expressed concern that these rates are hardly enough to make ends meet, considering that the rate of pension for district judges in certain cases is around ₹8,000 a month. Such judges are also unlikely to be able to resume any other mode of work after retirement, the CJI added. "These are district judicial officers. There was a case in which a judicial officer was recommended for appointment to the High Court, and she was told her tenure as the district judge will not be taken into account for pension. She was suffering from cancer. Please look into this. Now district judges are being told that they will be 96,000 per year, 8k per month, as pension. These are the judges who come to High Court at 55 years of age. Now they spend their entire life in the district judiciary and then being told pension not on the basis of this - is something which needs to be looked at. These judges do not get any arbitration etc also," CJI Chandrachud remarked. .The Court, therefore, urged the Central government to view the case of judges with some leeway, when it comes to retiral benefits such as the payment of pension."Please deal with Judiciary in a different way and it is not that you become 60 year old and do something else ... We are conscious of the financial implications in other segments. But handle this differently. This is about the district judiciary, you see," CJI Chandrachud said. .Representing the Central government, Solicitor General (SG) Tushar Mehta assured that the government would examine the issue. "Since it has fallen from the Bench, we will definitely look into it," Mehta replied.The matter will be heard next on August 27. The hearing was deferred till then on an adjournment request by Attorney General of India R Venkataramani and SG Mehta. .In earlier hearings, the Court had observed that retired district judges were not being given enough pension.The Bench had underlined the importance of enabling judges to live a life of dignity upon retirement, as they spend a significant portion of their working lives in service to the judicial institution.In November 2023, the Court had even warned that contempt of court action would be taken against Chief Secretaries of States that do not comply with earlier directions to pay pension to district judges at revised rates from July 1 onwards.