The Judicial Service Commission (JSC) has decided to pay only partial salaries to judges currently under suspension and to withhold several allowances that they would normally be entitled to.
According to reports, a circular related to the decision has been issued by Prasanna Alwis, the Secretary of the Judicial Service Commission, to all High Court Judges.
The JSC had recently taken steps to suspend several judges who are facing various allegations. Following this, the Commission decided that those judges would only be entitled to reduced salaries during their period of suspension.
The matter of which allowances are to be paid along with the partial salaries was discussed during a meeting of the Audit and Management Committee of the Ministry of Justice and National Integration.
At the meeting, the committee decided that only the following allowances should be granted to suspended judges:
- Professional allowance
- Personal allowance
- Cost of living allowance
- Language proficiency allowance
The committee further ruled that the following allowances should not be paid to the suspended judges:
- Telephone allowance
- Vehicle allowance
- Driver’s allowance
- Book allowance
- Housing/rent allowance
- Appeal allowance
- Fuel allowance
Based on the decisions, the Judicial Service Commission has issued a circular outlining the specific allowances to be paid alongside the partial salaries of the suspended judges.
