Sir, the amendment moved by Dr. Ambedkar provides that the rights of a judge in respect of pension shall not be varied to his disadvantage after his appointment. I should therefore like to explain why I have thought it necessary to move my amendment. It is true that so far as existing incumbents are concerned, no change will be made in their pensions if article 104 is passed in the form proposed by Dr. Ambedkar. But we have to provide for the future too. Dr. Ambedkar proposes that the question of leave of absence and allowances and pensions should be dealt with by Parliament by law after the passing of this Constitution by the Assembly. There are so many matters to be dealt with in this connection that it is not possible to provide for all of them in the Constitution; they can be provided for either in the appropriate Schedule or in a parliamentary statute. Now Dr. Ambedkar himself has proposed that the salaries of the judges should not be left to be determined by Parliament and that they should be fixed by the Constitution. The salary provided for them in one of the Schedules will be lower than it is at present, and this has been done because judges of the Supreme Court have been given under article 308 the option of resigning should the salary and conditions of service suggested in the Schedule not be acceptable to them. I shall discuss this matter when the Schedule is placed before the House. I may, however, say that I personally think that the salaries provided for the judges of the Supreme Court are lower than they should be. Our effort should be to attract the best legal talent in our highest courts of justice and the conditions of service therefore should be such as to induce men with the best qualifications and with the highest reputation at the bar to accept judgeships of the Supreme Court. That, however, is not a matter that I can go into in any detail at present; but my amendment proposes that whatever changes may be made in future they should not affect the pensions that the judges are now entitled to get. The last proviso in Dr. Ambedkar’s amendment protects only the judges now holding office. But, so far as the future is concerned, Parliament will have the power to reduce the pension. Considering the present economic situation and also the fact that judges of the Supreme Court will not be allowed to plead or act in any court in the country, I think that, the least that we can do, is to provide that they should not be given a smaller pension than what they are entitled to now. It may be desirable in theory to leave everything in this respect to Parliament, but I think the question of pension is as important as that of salary. If you are not going to allow a judge of the Supreme Court after retirement to practice in any court in India, I think it is only fair that the present pension should not be reduced. It is not very high even at present; it is not very attractive to persons at the bar who enjoy a good practice. But if it is lowered further, there is a danger of making the judgeships unattractive to the best legal talent in the country.
