Institute of Legal and Management Studies

The Supreme Court recently issued notice on a contempt petition alleging non-compliance with the Court's order which accepted the recommendations of the Second National Judicial Pay Commission (SNJPC) with regard to conveyance/transport allowance of judicial officers and directed state governments to implement the same.

A bench of CJI BR Gavai and Justices K Vinod Chandran, Atul S Chandurkar passed the order after hearing Senior Advocate Meenakshi Arora, who argued that despite further orders having been passed by the Court in the matter, and a statement by the concerned Additional Solicitor General regarding compliance with the Court's directions, the Delhi government has failed to do the needful.

The Court issued notice to the Delhi Chief Secretary and Finance Secretary considering the allegation that there was non-compliance with the SNJPC recommendation to provide soft nominal loan facilities of upto Rs.10 lakhs to judicial officers (for purchasing vehicles).

The next date of hearing in the matter is October 6.

To recap, the SNJPC was constituted by the Supreme Court in 2017 to review the pay scale and other conditions of Judicial Officers belonging to the district judiciary all over the country. A bench comprising Justices J Chelameswar and Abdul Nazeer had appointed former Supreme Court Judge-Justice PV Reddy as Commission Chairman and former Kerala High Court Judge and Senior Supreme Court lawyer R Basant as member.

In June 2022, the Supreme Court had directed the implementation of the enhanced pay scale as recommended by the SNJPC with effect from January 1, 2016. A bench of CJI NV Ramana, Justices Krishna Murari and Hima Kohli also directed the Centre and the States to pay the arrears to the officers in 3 instalments - 25% in 3 months, another 25% in next 3 months and balance by June 30, 2023. Revised directions on disbursal of arrears were passed by the Court in May 2023.

Appearance: Sr Adv K Parmeswar (Amicus); Sr Adv Meenakshi Arora, Adv Rajat Sehgal and AoR Vandana Anand

Case Title: JUDICIAL SERVICE ASSOCIATION OF DELHI (REGD.) v. DHARMENDRA, CONMT.PET.(C) No. 623-624/2025

Click here to read the order