Written by Shaurya Mahajan
The honourable Supreme Court on Tuesday in the case of All India Judges Association And Ors v. Union of India And Ors. directed all States to comply with the direction issued by it in 2012 to enhance the pension of retired judicial officers. States have been asked to submit a compliance report within 4 weeks.
The direction was given by the three-judge bench comprising Justices L. Nageswara Rao, B.R. Gavai and Aniruddha Bose who were hearing a plea filed by the All India Retired Judges Association seeking compliance with the Apex Court’s 2012 order.
The Court directed all the State Governments to adhere to its order dated 08.10.2012, wherein the Apex Court had directed that the existing pension of all the past pensioners who had retired after 01.01.1996 and the pensioners whose pensions were consolidated as per the Karnataka model shall be raised by 3.07 times on par with the other pensioners subject to a minimum of 50% of the revised pay scale of their respective posts.
It is pertinent to note that the ‘Karnataka model’ is the Karnataka Government Order dated 04.02.2004 about the pension of retired judicial officers.
Advocate, Mr. Gopal Jha appearing on behalf of the applicant apprised the Bench that the order dated 08.10.2012 is yet to be complied with in its entirety by some states, while there are a few states that have not yet given effect to the order. To emphasise the urgency in implementation of the order, he pointed out that the non-compliance is causing an impediment to retired judicial officers, especially given the fact that several officers are about 90 years of age.
Considering the delay, the Bench stated –
“It has nearly been a decade since the direction was issued by this Court to pay pension in accordance with the formula mentioned therein. Implementation of the direction dated 08.10.2012 does not brook any further delay.”
Therefore, the court ordered all state governments to comply with its previous order in the mentioned period.
