The pay hike would take apex and high court judges roughly back to the levels they had been paid in 1957 (adjusted for inflation), according to an analysis of decreasing salaries we had published in Mint in 2015 with Alok Prasanna Kumar (see graphic above).

If the pay hike for judges does not take effect this year, it would effectively mean that judges would be earning less in real terms than they had been in 1998.

The Times of India reported:

The government has accepted the Supreme Court proposal for raising emoluments given to judges of the Supreme Court and high courts, commensurate with the recent hike in pay for central government staff. The Chief Justice of India (CJI) is the highest-paid functionary in the judiciary with his current monthly emoluments at Rs 1 lakh, excluding dearness and other allowances. This is likely to be raised to Rs 2.8 lakh, in addition to perks such as official residence, cars, staff and allowances as applicable.

The government has pegged the salaries of the chief justices of HCs and SC judges at Rs 2.5 lakh per month, in addition to allowances, at the level of the cabinet secretary, the service chiefs and some constitutional functionaries such as the CAG and the CEC. The salary of an HC judge has been pegged at Rs 2.25 lakh per month, same as that of secretary-level officers in the central government.