NEW DELHI: At a time when the world is reeling from recession and pay and job cuts are looming, the Centre proposed a 300% salary hike on Monday for supreme court (SC) and high court (HC) judges.

Piloting a bill in parliament for the over three-fold increase, law minister HR Bhardwaj said the government proposed to hike the salary of the chief justice of India (CJI) from Rs33,000 to Rs1 lakh per month, and that of other apex court judges from Rs30,000 to Rs90,000.

The draft legislation also seeks to increase the salary of chief justices of high courts from Rs30,000 to Rs90,000 and that of other HC judges from Rs26,000 to Rs80,000.

The hike is to become effective from January 1, 2006, and as such, the judges who have retired since will get hefty arrears. The Centre also passed a long-awaited bill, increasing the number of SC judges from 25 to 30, excluding CJI. This, it said, would ensure that the wheel of justice dispensation in apex court moves faster.

Bhardwaj said 41,581 cases were open in SC till March last year. "Judges in the supreme court feel overburdened and have been working under acute pressure," he said, justifying the increase.

Quoting CJI, he said, "It hasn't been possible for him (CJI) to constitute a five-judge bench on a regular basis to hear cases involving interpretation of the constitutional law."

The increase in the number of SC judges and the requisite staff for them would entail an annual additional expenditure of Rs171.37 lakh. Also, there would be a recurring annual expenditure of Rs6.65 lakh per bungalow.

The government will also spend about Rs9.85 crore on the construction of five bungalows for the new judges and Rs81.25 lakh to purchase cars for them.
Source : Central