Judges and pension

Sir, - I am rather puzzled by the move of Mr. Justice Kuldip Singh, retired judge of the Supreme Court to seek parity of pension for retired judges of the apex court irrespective of their length of service (Oct. 18). In all other walks of life, the quantum of retirement pension is strictly proportional to the length of service a person has put in. After all, a lawyer who was appointed to the Supreme Court bench only after he had attained the age of 55 years would not have been keeping idle until then but must have had quite a lucrative practice and must have earned an income considerably more than the salary of a Supreme Court judge. More often, a practising lawyer aspires to the shift from the bar to the bench mainly for the prestige such a position carries even if it involves sacrifice of a sizeable part of one's income. A parallel can be drawn with the instances of business leaders in the U.S. giving up their positions carrying salaries and bonus running into millions of dollars to join the federal government in high-profile positions but with very low salaries.

I wonder why the judges - even those who had occupied the august bench in the Supreme Court - should seek to be treated differently from others in such matters.

V. Nagarajan,

Chennai

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