Allowances are provided to judges spouses on foreign trips: SC

The Supreme Court (SC) registry said on Friday daily allowance (DA) to spouses of SC judges, when they are on official trips abroad, was a standard practice.

With this, it refuted the claims in a section of the media that the court departed from tradition in seeking DA for the CJI’s wife for a recent trip to Ireland and London.

In a rejoinder of sorts, SC secretary general MP Bhadran said DA was extended to spouses of all judges. Media reports claimed that the government had, in response to an RTI query, said that there was no such provision, since the spouses were only entitled to air tickets.

The reports, quoting external affairs ministry officials, claimed spouses of Indian Foreign Service (IFS) officers did not get separate allowances. “The government has been providing DA not only to the spouse of the CJI, but also to spouses of other judges of the Supreme Court when they go abroad,” Bhadran said.

The sanction for DA has to be obtained before a trip. However, in the case of the CJI’s trip to London in October, a request had to be made for DA to his spouse since the department of justice did not give clearance beforehand.

The request made by Bhadran was only to issue a revised sanction order to disburse DA to the CJI’s spouse and it was not against the practice followed by the government.