Supreme Court to hear Patna HC judge's plea over salary stuck for 10 months

New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Tuesday agreed to hear a curious case of Patna High Court judge Justice Rudra Praksah Mishra who is not getting his salary for 10 months as he does not have a General Provident Fund (GPF) account.

The top court also issued notices on other petitions relating to pension and pay of serving and former high court judges.

A bench, comprising Chief Justice D Y Chandrachud and justices J B Pardiwala and Manoj Misra, intended to fix the cases for hearing on a later day, but gave an early date after the counsel for the high court judge raised his issue.

"Let us hear this on Friday," the CJI said and ordered the de-tagging of his case with the batch of pleas.

Senior advocate K Parameswar, who is assisting the bench as an amicus curiae, said that Justice Rudra Praksah Mishra of the high court was not getting the salary as the Bihar government says that it has brought in a new pension scheme.

"The whole issue pertains to 'One Rank One Pension' for judicial officers and on another matter relating to the pensions of HC Judges in old pension schemes and new pension schemes by states," Parameswar said.

"There cannot be difference between the pensions of the judges belonging to the same cadre," the CJI said.

Earlier on January 12, the bench had agreed to hear the plea of Justice Mishra, who was elevated to the high court from district judiciary on November 4, 2023, seeking its intervention for opening a General Provident Fund account and release of his salary.

The bench had then issued notices to the Centre and others, including the Bihar government, seeking their responses on the petition.

Justice Mishra's counsel had urged the bench to pass an interim order to open a temporary GPF account of the petitioner.

The bench had said it will hear the matter after two weeks.

"The petitioner is a sitting judge of the High Court of Judicature Patna, Bihar, who has been elevated as a judge of the High Court from superior judicial service of the state and is seeking the kind indulgence of this court inter alia for opening of his GPF Account, release of his salary etc," said the plea, filed through advocate Prem Prakash.

It said that after Mishra's elevation as a high court judge, he was not allotted a GPF account despite having submitted the relevant documents.

"Under a reasonable apprehension of being deprived of the GPF benefits, due to conundrum over the shift from NPS (New Pension Scheme) to GPF (General Provident Fund under the Old Pension Scheme) account, causing immense mental and financial harassment to the petitioner, the petitioner preferred not to take his salary from the month of November 2023 onwards," the petition said.

Besides other prayers, the plea has sought a declaration from the apex court that the petitioner is entitled to subscribe to GPF accounts in terms of section 20 of the High Court Judges (Salaries and Conditions of Service) Act, 1954.