The government on Tuesday said that the 300% hike in salaries of high court and Supreme Court judges was just a "token increase" and a "nominal" hike considering the "dignity of the office of judiciary".

After the parliament approved the High Court and Supreme Court Judges (Salaries and Conditions of Service) Amendment Bill, 2008, law minister Hans Raj Bhardwaj had said that the services of judges should not be measured in terms of the pay they get. 

Replying to a debate on the Bill that proposes to increase the chief justice of India's monthly pay from Rs33,000 to Rs1 lakh and that of other apex court judges from Rs30,000 to Rs90,000, the minister said the Sixth Pay Commission made new provisions for salary and allowances of civil servants and that the salary of judges needs to be revised accordingly. A high court chief justice will now get Rs90,000 a month and other HC judges from Rs26,000 to Rs80,000 a month.

Noted lawyer, former law minister and Rajya Sabha MP Arun Jaitley initiated the debate on hike in judges' salary and supported the Bill. But he wanted changes in the appointment procedure of judges and a system to look into the allegations of misdemeanour by judges as "impeachment is used in the rarest of rare cases".

Jaitley said the collegium system has not improved the quality of selection and sought devising criteria for the purpose. "Discretion of the collegium (in appointment of judges) could be restricted through legislative procedure," he said. 

Calling for setting up of a National Judicial Commission, Ram Jethmalani said integrity of judges was increasingly being questioned. "I would like to ask whether the selection process of judges takes into account their merits. Judges who have not even tried simple cases, are passing life and death sentences," he said.

It was the duty of the Bar to expose "corrupt" judges but Jethmalani lamented that nobody has the "courage" to do so.

Congress' MP Shantaram Naik agreed that there should be criteria for appointment of judges. The CPI(M)'s R Rajan said appointment of judges was not open to public scrutiny. "Perhaps it is in India alone that judges appoint judges," he said.

Congress' PJ Kurien pleaded that none of the institutions in a parliamentary democracy should cross the "laxman rekha". "But in certain judicial pronouncements it has been done...like observations that all politicians are corrupt".

Rakesh Bhatnagar/ DNA-Daily News & Analysis Source: 3D Syndication