The chief secretaries and finance secretaries of 17 states and union territories, including those of Haryana and Himachal Pradesh, will appear in person on Tuesday before the Supreme Court for failing to clear the arrears of revised salary and pension of judicial officers in terms of the Second National Judicial Pay Commission’s recommendations.
A three-judge Bench led by CJI DY Chandrachud on August 22 ordered them to personally appear before it to explain the non-implementation of SNJPC’s recommendations after amicus curiae K Paramesha submitted that as per the responses received from the States/UTs, 17 states/UTs have still not complied with its various orders, including those passed last month.
Besides Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, the states and UTs whose chief secretaries and finance secretaries will appear before the court are: Tamil Nadu, Madhya Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh, West Bengal, Chhattisgarh, Delhi, Assam, Nagaland, Meghalaya, Jammu & Kashmir, Ladakh, Jharkhand, Kerala, Bihar and Odisha.
“We direct that, in terms of the previous directions, the Chief Secretaries and the Finance Secretaries of the aforesaid states shall remain personally present in court on 27 August 2024 at 10.30 am,” ordered the Bench which also included Justice JB Pardiwala and Justice Manoj Misra.
“We know how to extract compliance now. If we just say that the chief secretary will be present if the affidavit is not filed then it will not be filed. We are not sending them to jail but let them be here and then an affidavit will be submitted. Let them be personally present now…The chief secretaries and finance secretaries have to be personally present. Failing compliance, the court will be constrained to initiate contempt,” it had warned on July 11.
“Though seven opportunities have been granted to the states, it appears full compliance has not been effected,” the Bench had noted.
On July 21, there were 21 defaulting states/UTs, including Punjab, which were to file compliance reports by August 20, failing which their chief secretaries and finance secretaries were to appear personally before the top court.
However, on August 22, the amicus curiae informed the Bench that four of them have filed compliance reports and only 17 states/UTs remained.
Expressing strong displeasure over the failure of states to implement the recommendations of the Second National Judicial Pay Commission, the Bench had on July 11 made clear that it will not grant any further extensions.
The SNJPC’s recommendations covered pay structure, pension and family pension and allowances, besides dealing with the issue of establishing a permanent mechanism to determine subjects of service conditions of the district judiciary.
The Supreme Court had on January 4 asked high courts to set up a two-judge committee each to oversee the implementation of its orders on pay, pension and other retirement benefits for judicial officers in terms of the Commission’s recommendations.
The disbursements on account of arrears of salary, pension and allowances due and payable to judicial officers, retired judicial officers and family pensioners shall be computed and paid on or before February 29, 2024, it had ordered.
Maintaining that there’s a need to maintain uniformity in service conditions of judicial officers across India, the top court had said judicial independence — necessary to preserve the faith and confidence of common citizens in the rule of law — can be ensured and enhanced only so long as judges are able to lead their life with a sense of financial dignity.
Regarding tax deduction at source (TDS) by states on allowances due to serving and retired judicial officers, the Bench had said, “Wherever exemptions are available under the Income Tax Act from deduction of TDS on allowances, the state governments shall ensure that no deductions are made. Wherever TDS are wrongly deducted, the amount shall be refunded to judicial officers.”