Kerala Judicial Officers Association Knocks Apex Court Claiming the Huge Disparity Between Pay Scale of Judicial Officers and Court Staff
(Judicial Quest News Network)
The Kerala Judicial Officer’s Association (“Association”) a body of judges of District and Subordinate courts in Kerala have approached the Supreme Court, to bring on record the huge disparity between the pay scale of the Judicial Staff and Court Staff in the State of Kerala which came into force vide GO (P) No. 27/2021/Fin dated 10.02.2021 as the “Eleventh Pay Revision Commission”.
This is stated to have disrupted the whole mechanism of the Judicial officers over the Court Officers.
The Supreme Court had constituted a new National Judicial Pay Commission in 2017 to examine the pay structure and other conditions of Judicial Officers belonging to the Sub-ordinate judiciary all over the country.
the Commission having considered various alternative methodologies has recommended the adoption of Pay Matrix which has been drawn up by applying the multiplier of 2.81 to the existing pay, commensurate with the percentage of increase of pay of High Court Judges. @ 3% cumulative has been applied. As per the revised pay structure evolved by the Commission:
i. The Junior Civil Judge/First Class Magistrate whose staring pay is Rs.27,700/- will now get Rs.77,840/-.
ii. The next higher post of Senior Civil Judge starts with the pay of Rs.1,11,000/- and iii. The District Judge Rs.1,44,840/-. The highest pay which a District Judge (STS) will get, is Rs.2,24,100/-.
However, the Kerala Government have subsequently revised the pay structure for court staff by a Government GO dated February 10, 2021 by which it approved the recommendations of the Eleventh Pay Revision Commission.
has brought about a huge disparity between the pay scale of Judicial Officers and Court officers, wherein, the pay scale of Court Staff is now higher than that of Judicial Officer’s, thereby disrupting the whole mechanism
of the judiciary and seniority of the Judicial Officer’s over the Court Officer’s.
The plea filed through Advocate Deepak Prakash and drawn by Advocate Divyangna Malik.
The plea said that it is highly likely that other State governments might also have passed and implemented similar Government Orders, vis-à-vis pay scale of judiciary, thereby necessitating urgent hearing the Supreme Court.
The Association has filed an application to be impleaded in the W.P. (C) No. 643 of 2015, “All India Judges Association versus Union of India & Ors.”, which is a PIL dealing with the issues of pay scale and other emoluments of Judicial officer’s belonging to the sub-ordinate Judiciary all across India. The Association has put forth the grievances and genuine difficulties being faced by the Judicial officer’s and staff of the subordinate Courts in the State of Kerala and will be praying for expeditious orders to disburse the interim emoluments, which has been pending since a long time.
It is thus sought that applicant association be impleaded with the following prayer
Allow the present application and permit “Kerala Judicial Officer’s Association” to be impleaded as a Respondent Party in Writ Petition (Civil) No. 643 of 2015, and/or;
ii) Permit the Applicant to file a detailed Affidavit in Writ Petition (Civil) No. 643 of 2015 and/or;
iii) Pass any other or further orders as may be deemed fit and proper in the circumstances of the case.
