Former Allahabad High Court Judge, Justice Ajit Singh, Moves Against Unequal Pension System
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In a significant legal move, retired Justice Ajit Singh, formerly a judge of the Allahabad High Court, has taken a stand against what he perceives as an unjust pension system by approaching the Supreme Court of India. Justice Singh, appointed to the High Court from the Uttar Pradesh Higher Judiciary in 2018, retired on March 29, 2023, and currently receives a monthly pension of ₹15,005. He contends that this amount does not reflect the dignity or the status warranted by his former position.
The crux of Justice Singh’s plea lies in challenging a specific Union Law Ministry letter that differentiates between High Court judges elevated from the district judiciary and those appointed directly from the bar. According to the existing framework, judges elevated from the district judiciary do not have their tenure counted towards their pension, unlike their counterparts appointed from the bar, for whom a decade of bar experience is considered equivalent to bench experience for pension purposes.
In his plea, Justice Singh highlights the disparity, stating,
“The tenure at the district judiciary is arbitrarily not counted towards determining the pension of service quota High Court judges while in the case of judges appointed from the bar, a period of ten years at the bar is counted as experience at the bench for determining pension.”
Further emphasizing the inadequacy of the current pension rate, Justice Singh’s plea describes it as “not adequate for survival befitting the status of the petitioner.” This assertion underscores the financial difficulties faced by retired judges, which, according to Justice Singh, fail to respect the esteem associated with their former judicial roles.
Moreover, Justice Singh criticizes the existing policy as arbitrary, especially in its treatment of judicial service tenure. He asserts,
“It is arbitrary to take a stand that a period of ten years will be added in case of judges who are elevated from the Bar for computation of pension and other retiral benefits but the period of service as rendered by High Court Judges during judicial service before elevation will not be added to the length of service for computation of pension and other retiral benefits.”
In response to these arguments, Justice Singh has petitioned the Supreme Court to quash the contentious Law Ministry letter. He advocates for a pension system that treats retired High Court judges appointed from the district judiciary on par with those appointed from the bar, considering their service tenure as district judges.
This legal challenge not only questions the fairness of the pension system for judges in India but also sets a precedent for how judicial service and contributions are recognized and rewarded post-retirement. The outcome of this case could potentially reshape the pension landscape for judges, ensuring a more equitable system that honors their service irrespective of their path to the bench.
Senior Advocate and retired Allahabad High Court judge Sudhir Kumar Saxena, along with advocates Aviral Saxena, Piyush Thanvi, Mohd Imran Ahmad, and Shrawani, represented retired Justice Singh during the proceedings.
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The Supreme Court recently sought responses from the Allahabad High Court and the Central and Uttar Pradesh governments on a plea seeking “one rank one pension” for retired service quota judges. This includes High Court judges who were appointed from the district judiciary and not the bar, as presented in the case titled Justice Ajit Singh (Retd.) vs Union of India and ors. A bench consisting of Chief Justice of India (CJI) DY Chandrachud, along with Justices JB Pardiwala and Manoj Misra, issued notice on the petition by retired Justice Ajit Singh.
The Supreme Court’s recent observations on the pension concerns of retired district judges add further weight to the ongoing discussion on the adequacy and fairness of the pension system for judges in India.
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