New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Wednesday said that it is sad that some retired judges of the High Court get a pension of 10,000 to 15,000 rupees, ‘You cannot take a legal approach in every case, sometimes you have to take a humanitarian approach. “A bench of Justices BR Gavai and KV Viswanathan observed.
“It is pathetic,” the bench said, adding that some retired high court judges were getting a pension of Rs 10,000 to 15,000.
Petitions regarding the pension of retired judges of the High Court have been listed for hearing in the bench on Wednesday.
Attorney General R Venkataramani referred the case to the bench and requested that it be heard in January.
Venkataramani said that the government will try to solve the problem.
“It would be better to convince them that our interference should be ignored,” the bench said.
It said the matter would not be decided in individual cases and whatever the Supreme Court held, would apply to all High Court judges.
The bench has fixed the matter for hearing on January 8.
While hearing a petition in the matter last month, the Supreme Court had expressed “shock” that some retired high court judges were getting paltry pensions ranging between Rs 6,000 and Rs 15,000.
The bench was hearing a petition filed by a retired High Court judge claiming that he had received a pension of Rs 15,000.
The petitioner, who was elevated as a judge of the Allahabad High Court after serving as a judicial officer in the District Court for 13 years, claimed that the authorities refused to consider his judicial service while calculating his pension.
‘It is surprising that the retired judges of the High Court in front of us are getting Rs 6,000 and Rs 15,000 pension, how can that happen? The bench made this comment while hearing the petition.
While hearing a separate petition in March, the Supreme Court said no discrimination can be made in calculating the pension benefits of retired High Court judges if they are promoted from the Bar or the District Judiciary.
The pension benefit of a retired high court judge promoted from the district judiciary should be calculated on the basis of his final salary as a high court judge, he said.