The Kerala government on Wednesday clarified that it had no plans to recover any amount from the emoluments of the judges of the High Court after its Registrar General shot off a letter informing their salaries cannot be deferred through an executive order.
"No decision has been taken on the salary cut or deferring of the salary of High Court judges at the state government level. They are part of the Constitutional body," Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan told reporters in Thiruvananthapuram. "A decision on that should be taken separately," said Pinarayi.
He was replying to a question about the Kerala High Court Registrar General (RG) writing to the Chief Secretary stating that judges not be brought under the purview of the salary cut.
The RG wrote to the Chief Secretary after the government on April 22 issued an order deferring disbursement of salaries for a period of six days every month from April to August this year for all who draw their wages from the Consolidated Fund of the state as part of the finance conservation measures in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic.
"It may be noted that as per Article 221 of the Constitution, the salaries are paid to the Honourable Judges as determined by the Parliament and they shall not be varied to their disadvantage after the appointment. Therefore the salaries and allowances of the Hon'ableChief Justice and Judges cannot be varied or deferred by the Government, through an executive order," the letter dated April 27 said.
The CM said that on earlier occasions, the High Court judges have voluntarily donated to the Chief Minister's Disaster Relief Fund.
The courts took the initiative to donate during the devastating floods in the last two consecutive years, he said.
He also said Supreme Court judges had also taken initiative to help the state and had contributed to CMDRF.
The RG also stated the Chief Justice had already taken an initiative to collect contributions from the judges for making donations to the CMDRF. Hence, the Chief Justice has directed the Registry to inform the same to the government and take necessary steps to exclude the judges of the High Court from the purview of the government order, the letter had stated.
The High Court had on Tuesday stayed the government order for the salary cut of its employees, observing that it lacked legal backing, following which the state cabinet decided to bring an ordinance.
The government's move to cut salaries has been criticised by the opposition Congress and challenged in the court by a section of employees' organisations.