Parliamentary panel slam govt for

Agencies

New Delhi: A Parliamentary panel has slammed the government for promulgating an ordinance to hike the salaries of Supreme Court and High Court judges after a bill on the issue was introduced in the Lok Sabha.

The Department-related Parliamentary Standing Committee on Personnel, Public Grievances, and Law and Justice while "taking exception" to the ordinance has recommended that "it should not be cited as a precedent in the future".

The Committee that went into the The High Court and Supreme Court Judges (Salaries and Conditions of Services) Amendment Bill, 2008, took exception to the "development" of the ordinance being promulgated earlier this month even as the bill was introduced in Lok Sabha on December 22, 2008. The bill was eventually passed by Lok Sabha yesterday.

A few days ago, Speaker Somnath Chatterjee had also expressed his disapproval over the government's move to promulgate the ordinance for immediate hike in the salaries of judges of the Supreme Court and the High Courts. "It could have waited for another fortnight.

Heaven would not have fallen. Ok, I have expressed my disapproval of this," Chatterjee had observed.

His remarks came when Law Minister Hans Raj Bhardwaj was laying a copy on the table of an explanatory statement giving reasons for bringing the ordinance.