SC summons CSs, Finance Secretaries of 16 States

New Delhi : The Supreme Court on Thursday summoned the Chief and Finance Secretaries of 16 states for non-compliance of the Second National Judicial Pay Commission recommendations on the payment of arrears of pension and other retirement benefits to the judicial officers.

Expressing strong displeasure over non-compliance of the SNJPC's recommendations, a bench of Chief Justice D Y Chandrachud and justices J B Pardiwala and Manoj Misra said, "We know how to extract compliance now. If we just say that the chief secretary will be present if the affidavit is not filed then it will not be filed. "We are not sending them to jail but let them be here and then an affidavit will be submitted. Let them be personally present now," the bench said. Though seven opportunities have been granted to the states, it appears that full compliance has not been affected and several states are in default, it said.

"The chief and finance secretaries have to be personally present. Failing compliance, the court will be constrained to initiate contempt," it said. According to the order, the bench directed the top two bureaucrats of Andhra Pradesh, West Bengal, Chhattisgarh, Delhi, Assam, Arunachal Pradesh, Nagaland, Mizoram, Himachal, Kerala, Meghalaya, MP, TN, Manipur, Odisha and Rajasthan to appear before it on August 23. The bench made clear that it will not grant any more extensions. It passed the orders after taking note of the submissions and perusing the note provided by lawyer K Parmeswar who is assisting the court as amicus curiae (a friend of court).

At the outset, he also referred to the deduction of tax at source by the states on allowances which are due to the present and retired judicial officers. "Wherever exemptions are available under the Income Tax Act from deduction of TDS (tax deducted at source) on allowances, the state governments shall ensure that no deductions are made. Wherever TDS are wrongly deducted, the amount shall be refunded to the judicial officers," the bench said. The bench heard submissions on compliance of the SNJPC by various states. It rejected the submissions of states like West Bengal, which sought one more year's time, Assam, Andhra, Delhi, Himachal and Kerala on the alleged delay in complying with the recommendations on payment of arrears and other benefits to the judicial officers.