NEW DELHI: A panel, set up to recommend a hike in the salaries of lower court judges, has proposed a 30-per cent interim relief for the judicial officers.
The National Judicial Pay Commission, which submitted its interim report to the Supreme Court last week, has recommended a 30-per cent interim relief to the lower court judges, on the existing basic pay, from January 1, 2016.
A statement from the commission said the judicial officers working in the Delhi State Judicial Services would not be entitled to draw the proposed interim relief as they were already drawing salaries as per the scales recommended by the 7th Pay Commission.
The commission was set up following a Supreme Court order and its recommendation may come up before an apex court bench in the coming days.
The pensioners will be getting the arrears on a pro ratio basis, by a 30-per cent increase on the current basic pay, from January 1, 2016, "which is regardless to commuted pension", the commission has said.
The judges and judicial officers got the last pay hike, a three-fold jump from their salaries decided in 1999, in 2010.
The 2010 hike was applied retrospectively from January 1, 2006.
The current entry-level salary for a junior civil judge is Rs 45,000 per month, while a senior judge gets nearly Rs 80,000.
The commission said it would release a consultation paper in the next few days to seek answers from all the state governments and registrar generals of all the high courts to examine the methods, work environments in the courts and the various allowances and benefits that are available to the judicial officers, in addition to their salaries.
The commission plans to submit its final report to the Supreme Court within the next six months.
Recently, the judges of the Supreme Court and the 24 high courts had received a nearly two-fold hike in their salaries and allowances.