Follow One Rank One Pension Principle: Supreme Court Directs Centre To Pay ₹15L To Retired HC CJs & ₹13.5L To Retired HC Judges As Full Pension

The Supreme Court has directed the Central Government to pay Rs. 15 lakhs per annum (p.a.) to the retired Chief Justices of the High Courts and Rs. 13.5 lakhs p.a. to the retired Judges of the High Courts as a full pension.

The Court took suo motu cognizance of the batch of matters concerning various issues regarding pension payable to retired Judges of the High Courts including the payment of gratuity and other terminal benefits.

The three-Judge Bench comprising Chief Justice of India (CJI) B.R. Gavai, Justice Augustine George Masih, and Justice K. Vinod Chandran held, “… it is not necessary to clarify, however, in order to avoid any ambiguity in future, we find that insofar as the retired Chief Justices of the High Courts are concerned, they will be entitled to full pension of Rs.15,00,000/- per annum and insofar as the retired Judges of the High Courts are concerned, they will be entitled to full pension of Rs.13,50,000/- per annum.”

The Bench clarified that all the allowances payable to a retired Judge on his retirement as a Judge of the High Court irrespective of the mode of entry as High Court Judge will have to be paid in accordance with the provisions of the High Court Judges (Salaries and Conditions of Service) Act, 1954 [HCJ Act].

Senior Advocate (Amicus Curiae) K. Parameshwar, Attorney General for India (AGI) R. Venkatramani, Advocates Kanti, M.V. Mukunda, Raji Gururaj, and Shreenivas Patil appeared for the Union of India while Senior Advocates S. Nagamuthu, Manoj Goel, S.B. Upadhyaya, AOR Prem Prakash, and Advocate Sudhir Kumar Saxena appeared for the different parties.

Case Background

The first issue that was involved in this case was related to non-grant of full pension to the Petitioners who have retired as High Court Judges without taking into consideration the services rendered by them as District Judges. The second issue was regarding the denial of full pension on the ground of break-in service for a period between the date on which they retired as District Judges and the date on which they assumed the charge as High Court Judges. The third issue was related to whether the Petitioner who retired as a High Court Judge but entered into the State Judiciary after the New Pension Scheme (NPS) came into effect would be entitled to pension as per the HCJ Act or not.

The fourth issue was as to whether a Judge who has retired as an Additional Judge of the High Court would be entitled to full pension or not. The fifth one was as to whether the Petitioner who is the widow of an Additional Judge of the High Court would be entitled to gratuity and family pension or not. The sixth issue was with regard to the denial of provident fund as payable under Section 20 of the HCJ Act on the ground that they were appointed after NPS came into effect.

Court’s Observations

The Supreme Court in the above regard, held, “… even the retired Judges who have retired as Additional Judges will be entitled to the same amount of basic pension i.e., Rs.13,50,000/- per annum. … the definition of “Judge” includes a Chief Justice, an acting Chief Justice, an Additional Judge and an acting Judge. Therefore, the denial of family pension merely on the ground that a Judge died in harness as an Additional Judge, in our view, is patently arbitrary.”

The Court further held that the widow/family members of even Additional Judges would be entitled to family pension in accordance with Section 17A of the HCJ Act.

“We, therefore, hold that the gratuity payable on death/retirement of a Judge will have to be calculated after adding the period of 10 years to the period as provided in clause (i) of sub-section (3) of Section 17A of the HCJ Act etc.”, it added.

Court’s Directions

The Court issued the following directions –

(i) The Union of India shall pay the full pension of Rs.15,00,000/- per annum to a retired Chief Justice of the High Court;

(ii) The Union of India shall pay the full pension of Rs.13,50,000/- per annum to a retired Judge of the High Court, other than a retired Chief Justice of the High Court;

(iii) A retired Judge of the High Court shall also include such of the retired Judges of a High Court who have retired as Additional Judge of the High Court;

(iv) The Union of India shall follow the principle of One Rank One Pension to all the retired Judges of the High Courts irrespective of their source of entry i.e., District Judiciary or the Bar, and irrespective of number of years that they have served either as a District Judge or a High Court Judge and all of them shall be paid full pension as aforesaid;

(v) In the case of a retired Judge of the High Court who has previously served in the District Judiciary, the Union of India shall pay full pension irrespective of any break-in-service between the date on which he/she retired as a Judge of the District Judiciary and the date on which he/she assumed charge as a Judge of the High Court;

(vi) In the case of a retired Judge of the High Court who has previously served in the District Judiciary and who entered into the District Judiciary after the coming into force of the Contributory Pension Scheme or New Pension Scheme (NPS), the Union of India shall pay the full pension.

(vii) The Union of India shall pay family pension to the widow or family members of a Judge of the High Court who dies in harness irrespective of whether such a Judge of the High Court was a Permanent Judge of the High Court or Additional Judge of the High Court;

(viii) The Union of India shall pay gratuity to the widow or family members of a Judge of the High Court who dies in harness by adding 10 years period to the period of service undergone by the said Judge irrespective of whether the minimum qualifying service as provided under clause (i) of sub-section (3) of Section 17A of HCJ Act had been completed or not; and

(ix) The Union of India shall pay all allowances payable to a retired Judge of a High Court in accordance with the provisions of the HCJ Act and the same shall include Leave Encashment in accordance with Section 4A of HCJ Act, Commutation of Pensions in accordance with Section 19, Provident Fund under Section 20 of the HCJ Act, etc.

Accordingly, the Apex Court disposed of the Writ Petitions and issued the necessary directions.

Cause Title- In Re: Refixation of pension considering service period in District Judiciary and High Court (Neutral Citation: 2025 INSC 726)

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