Retired judges to be entitled to uniform pension, says SC

Fixing a uniform scale of pension for any retiring judge or chief justice of the high court, a bench led by Chief Justice of India (CJI) Bhushan R Gavai noticed that the High Court Judges (Salaries and Conditions of Service) Act, 1954 or HCJ Act provides a maximum ceiling of ₹15 lakh per annum as the pension for a retiring chief justice of a high court and ₹13.5 lakh for a retiring high court judge.

Applying this across the board for all retired high court judges, the bench, also comprising justices AG Masih and K Vinod Chandran, said, “We are, therefore, of the considered view that all retired Judges would be entitled to a pension calculated on the basic pension of ₹13,50,000 per annum as provided under Paragraph 2 of Part I and Paragraph 2 of Part III of the First Schedule to the HCJ Act. In our considered view, only such an interpretation would remove any arbitrariness, inequality and discrimination and bring in parity in the matter of pension payable to all the retired judges.”

It directed the Centre to pay this flat pension to all retired HC judges and ₹15 lakh per annum to all retired CJs of high courts.