HC gives 2 more months to TN govt to implement judicial pay commission report

Chennai, Apr 22: The Madras High Court today gave two more months for Tamil Nadu government to implement the judicial pay commission's recommendations for sub-ordinate courts' employees.

Taking a serious view of the state government's failure to give effect to the commission's recommendations, the court ordered the state Chief Secretary and the Finance Secretary to be present before it if the recommendations were not implemented in two months.

The first bench, comprising Chief Justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul and Justice T S Sivagnanam, gave the order on a petition filed by Tamil Nadu Ministerial Officers Association seeking implementation of the recommendations of Justice Shetty Commission.

Posing a series of questions to Government Pleader S T S Moorthy, the Chief Justice said "what is the amount you spend on judiciary? What is the percentage allocated to the judiciary?" The First National Judicial Pay Commission headed by the retired judge of Supreme Court Justice K.Jagannatha Shetty (Shetty Commission) after examining services conditions, including the pay structure, of subordinate Court employees submitted a report which was accepted by Tamil Nadu government in its entirety.

On October 29 last year, the state government had sought six months time from the court for implementation of the report. The bench in today's order said:

"... even after six months they are still unwilling to implement the recommendations... We grant two months further period with a condition that unless they are implemented, the Chief Secretary and the Finance Secretary shall remain personally present in the court with all records."

The bench then posted the matter for further hearing to July 3.

PTI