Retired judges to be entitled to uniform pension, says SC

THE COURT HELD THAT ALL THE RETIRED JUDGES, IRRESPECTIVE OF THEIR APPOINTMENT DATE WOULD BE ENTITLED TO ₹13,50,000 AS BASIC PENSION PER YEAR

- Abraham Thomas

NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Monday held that retired high court judges will be entitled to uniform pension and other terminal benefits, ending ambiguity that prevailed over the issue with the government drawing "artificial" distinctions between permanent and additional judges, which the court held to be violative of the right to equality under the Constitution.

Fixing a uniform scale of pension for any retiring judge or chief justice of the high court, a bench led by Chief Justice of India (CJI) Bhushan R Gavai noticed that the High Court Judges (Salaries and Conditions of Service) Act, 1954 or HCJ Act provides a maximum ceiling of ₹15 lakh per annum as the pension for a retiring chief justice of a high court and ₹13.5 lakh for a retiring high court judge.