In a significant development, judicial officers across India will continue to receive an impressive array of tax-free allowances in addition to their salaries, as the Supreme Court pushed defaulting states to comply with the Second National Judicial Pay (SNJP) Commission’s recommendations. This move comes after the Chief Secretaries and Finance Secretaries of several defaulting states were summoned to appear before a Supreme Court bench comprising Chief Justice D Y Chandrachud, Justices J B Pardiwala, and Manoj Misra on Tuesday.
The bench examined the grievance raised by judicial officers regarding the states’ failure to provide advance increments for higher qualifications upon promotion under Assured Career Progression (ACP). Judicial officers with qualifications like LLM or equivalent are entitled to three advance increments, which are currently given only once during their service. The bench indicated that these increments should be granted with every promotion, aligning with the officers’ qualifications, a stance the CJI-led bench found prima facie legitimate.
The financial benefits provided to judicial officers include allowances like Dearness Allowance (DA), House Rent Allowance (HRA), and medical allowances during service and post-retirement. Additionally, they receive earned leave encashment, Leave Travel Allowance (LTA), and conveyance, telephone, and mobile phone allowances. Judicial officers serving in hill areas, tough locations, or militancy-infested and border areas are also entitled to special risk allowances. Notably, Nagaland has discontinued risk allowances for judicial officers, a decision under protest by the state’s judicial officers. The Supreme Court has tasked the Gauhati High Court’s committee with examining this issue.
Beyond the regular allowances, judicial officers benefit from children’s education allowances, including hostel subsidies, and substantially subsidized utilities at their residences. The government extends domestic help/home orderly allowances beyond retirement, reflecting the unique perks available to judicial officers.
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Further allowances include sums for furniture and air conditioning, newspapers and magazines, and even funds for judicial robes. On transfers, judicial officers receive grants to facilitate their relocation, and they can encash earned leave up to 300 days upon retirement.
At the entry level, a judicial officer under the SNJP scheme takes home approximately Rs 90,000 per month. India currently has around 23,000 judicial officers, unevenly distributed across states, with nearly 4.5 crore civil and criminal cases pending in courts, 38% of which are less than one year old.
