VIHAR DURVE Vs. STATE OF MAHARASHTRA AND ORS

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This Public Interest Litigation is preferred raising several issues regarding the Judiciary in the State of Maharashtra in general. A prayer is for setting up various additional Courts as set out in prayer clauses (a) to (j). In the first paragraph of order dated 12th February, 2016, a bench of this Court of which one of us (A.S.Oka, J.) is a party, passed the following order:-

(2.) On the basis of a prayer made by the learned counsel appearing for the petitioner, a permission was granted on 9th August, 2016 to amend the petition for the purposes of incorporating a challenge to the Government Resolution dated 31st October, 2005 which introduces "Defined Contribution Pension Scheme (for short "the New Scheme") for the Government Servants who are recruited on or after 1st November, 2005 in the Government service. The challenge to this Government Resolution (for short "the impugned Government Resolution") is confined to its applicability to the Judicial Officers in the State.

(3.) As far as the other issues involved in this Writ Petition are concerned, several steps have been taken during the pendency of the Petition for appointing additional Judges and for creating additional Courts. By an order dated 27th October, 2016, a Bench of this Court directed that the issue regarding pensionery benefits admissible to the Judicial Officers deserves to be disposed of finally. Accordingly, the State Government was permitted to file a reply. There are two affidavits on record of Shri Neeraj Pradeep Dhote, Legal Advisor-cum-Joint Secretary of the Law and Judiciary Department which are dated 16th June, 2016 and 19th July, 2016. There is also a reply filed on behalf of the High Court Registry which does not deal with the issue of pension to the Judicial Officers.