CUTTACK: The Orissa High Court on Tuesday declined to intervene against the three-fold salary hike of Odisha MLAs with a monthly package of Rs 3.45 lakh cleared through four bills in the Assembly on December 9, which would make them the highest paid legislators in the country.
The division bench of Chief Justice Harish Tandon and Justice MS Raman rejected the PIL filed by high court lawyer Kabita Patra saying the petition was premature as the Bill is presently pending assent of the Governor.
Patra challenged the constitutional propriety of the legislative action culminating in the passage of the Odisha Legislative Assembly Members Salary Allowances and Pension (Amendment) Bill, 2025. Advocate Srinivas Mohanty represented the petitioner.
The petition said the PIL was moved in the pre-assent stage to seek enforcement of constitutional safeguards before irreversible fiscal consequences on public funds in the form of recurring charge on the consolidated fund of the state.
During the hearing, advocate general Pitambar Acharya representing the state submitted that the high court has no power of judicial review to consider the validity of a Bill before it becomes an Act.
Hence, the constitutional validity of the Bill on the salary hike of MLAs cannot be challenged before it gets the assent of the Governor and becomes an Act, he submitted while arguing on the question of maintainability of the petition.
Taking note of the submissions, the bench observed that the petition is not maintainable as it is premature for the petitioner to challenge the Bill before the assent of the Governor.
As per the Odisha Legislative Assembly Members’ Salary, Allowances and Pension (Amendment) Bill, 2025, an MLA’s salary has been revised from `35,000 to `90,000 and allowances (constituency, conveyance, non-duty travel, books, electricity, medical and telephone) have been hiked from `65,000 to `2.55 lakh. The legislators will get arrears of around `65 lakh each as the revised package will be implemented retrospectively from June 5 last year.
With monthly packages of Rs 2.5 lakh, MLAs in Telangana and Maharashtra were among the highest paid, while legislators in Gujarat get Rs 1.10 lakh and Delhi Rs 90,000. Odisha was to surpass them all.