Supreme Court orders to release salaries of seven Patna High Court judges whose GPF accounts were closed

The Supreme Court has given orders that the salaries of seven Patna High Court judges, who had their general provident fund accounts closed, have to be released with immediate effect.

A bench comprising of Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud along with Justice PS Narasimha and Justice JB Pardiwala have issued directions and said it will hear the matter next on March 27, Monday.

The top court has instructed for the salaries to be released now. The Court has directed that salaries of the judges which have been withheld should be released on the basis of the position as it stood prior to the letter of December 13, 2022, of the Union Ministry of Law and Justice.

The Court gave this order after hearing a plea by seven judges of the Patna High Court who stated that their General Provident Fund (GPF) accounts were closed pursuant to a letter issued by the Law Ministry.

The judges are Justices Shailendra Singh, Arun Kumar Jha, Jitendra Kumar, Alok Kumar Pandey, Sunil Dutta Mishra, Chandra Prakash Singh, and Chandra Shekhar Jha.