There are thorns in the bed of roses occupied by holders of constitutional offices. The Supreme Court gave expression to it the other day when it asked a top government lawyer whether the NDA government had forgotten to raise the salaries of Supreme Court and High Court judges. The judges are peeved that the cabinet secretary, the highest paid bureaucrat, gets a fatter salary than the chief justice and his companion judges. The additional solicitor general, to whom the query was directed, asked for a fortnight’s time to inquire from the law ministry what had happened to the proposal to hike the salary of the chief justice from 01 lakh to 02.8 lakh, so that it is 030,000 more than the cabinet secretary’s salary. Similarly, judges of the apex court and the chief justices of the High Courts would get a hike of 01.6 lakh, which would take their salaries to 02.5 lakh. The High Court judges would see a jump of 01.45 lakh, taking their salary to 02.25 lakh.
Illustration: Bhaskaran
The cabinet had approved the proposal in March, but Parliament has to approve it. The government apparently forgot to move the bill during the second part of the budget session or the monsoon session. But, it was not forgetfulness; the government was undecided on raising the salaries of the president, vice president, prime minister, ministers and governors, whose salary increase also has to be approved by Parliament. Only the dearness allowance paid to them has been increased based on a formula linked to the cost-of-living index.
Interestingly, the governors had been asking president Pranab Mukherjee, till his term ended in July, to remind the prime minister about the salary hike. Among them was Ram Nath Kovind, then governor of Bihar. After Kovind became president, he organised a conference of governors, and one of the subjects that cropped up was higher salary for governors. Neither Mukherjee nor Kovind revealed to the governors whether they had taken up the subject with Narendra Modi, as all communication between the president and prime minister is confidential under the constitutional provisions.
The government, for its part, was worried about the negative reaction to huge salary hikes, especially as the economy was not registering high growth. The demand to increase the salary of ministers and MPs had also been kept in abeyance because of the fear of criticism that the MPs voted for fat salaries. But, the government had given the massive increases recommended by the seventh Pay Commission to bureaucrats, which the state governments followed, creating resentment that humbly placed bureaucrats were taking home larger amounts than their political and constitutional bosses. The Supreme Court’s reminder would be a test on whether Modi and his ministers are ready to catch the salary bull by its horns, especially as it involves those in very high offices.
sachi@theweek.in
