The Kerala Judicial Officers Association has moved the Supreme Court seeking to implead itself in the case for the implementation of the second national judicial pay commission recommendations.
The All India Judges Association has filed a petition before the apex court seeking to issue directions to the government to implement the pay commission proposals.
In her petition, V. Vinitha, secretary of the Kerala Judicial Officers Association and sub judge, submitted that the pay scale of court staff in Kerala was higher than that of judicial officers after the State government revised the salaries of its employees. The disparity in the salary had led to a situation where the whole mechanism of the judiciary was disrupted. It had also upset the seniority of the judicial officers over the court officers, the association submitted.
The salary of the court officers had gone up significantly after the implementation of the recommendations of the 11th Pay Revision Commission. It had also widened the disparity between the pay scale of judicial officers and court officers, the organisation submitted.
Once the recommendations of the judicial pay commission are implemented, the starting pay of a Junior Civil Judge/First Class Magistrate will be ₹77,840 against the existing ₹27,700. The pay of Senior Civil Judge will go up to ₹1.1 lakh and the District Judge ₹1.44 lakh. The highest pay of a District Judge will be enhanced to ₹2.24 lakh, according to the association.
The association represented all the judicial officers of the district judiciary in the State. All the judges, including ex-cadre judges and others of the subordinate courts, were part of the organisation, it submitted.
