NEWS FROM HYDERABAD

Indian Military Veterans

Thursday, August 6, 2015

NEWS FROM HYDERABAD

Aug 06 2015 : The Times of India (Hyderabad)

The Union Cabinet on Wednesday cleared the proposal to amend the High Court Judges Act removing anomalies in pensionary benefits of HC judges.

Once the Act is amended by Parliament, an HC judge elevated from the bar will have his 10 years of practice as advocate added to his service tenure for calculation of pensionary benefits. Finance minister Arun Jaitley called the report `onerank-one pensio nfor judges' as mischievous.It is only that 10 years deemed service will be added to those who are elevated from the Bar.Till now, a judge's pension has been based on the number of his service years, thus putting those elevated from the Bar at a disadvantage compared to those from the judicial service.

By moving the amendment, the government has also followed a SC judgment of last year which had asked the government to remove the anomalies. The apex court in its judgment had also said that to remove arbitrariness in the matter of pension of HC judges elevated from the Bar, the relief should be reckoned from April 1, 200The government will bring a bill in Parliament amending the law relating to high court judges salaries and conditions in service.

The Cabinet also cleared the amendments to the Arbitration and Conciliation Act. The arbitration bill, to be tabled in Parliament in the current session, is intended to signal the international business community that prolonged arbitration proceedings in India will soon become a thing of the past. One of the proposed amendment provides for settlement of cases within nine months, with very less intervention from courts. Another amendment proposes that the fee structure of the presiding arbitrator will be decided in the first sitting itself.