SC Agrees to Hear Patna HC Judge’s Plea on GPF Account & Salary Release

The Supreme Court has agreed to hear the plea filed by a sitting judge of the Patna High Court, seeking its intervention in opening a General Provident Fund (GPF) account and releasing his salary.

A bench of Chief Justice D Y Chandrachud, along with Justices JB Pardiwala and Manoj Misra, issued notices to the Centre and other relevant authorities, including the Bihar government, soliciting their responses on the petition filed by Justice Rudra Prakash Mishra.

“We will issue notice,” stated the bench.

Justice Mishra’s counsel urged the bench to pass an interim order to open a temporary GPF account for the petitioner. The bench declared that it would hear the matter after two weeks.

The plea, filed through advocate Prem Prakash, stated, “The petitioner is a sitting judge of the High Court of Judicature Patna, Bihar, who has been elevated as a judge of the High Court from superior judicial service of the state and is seeking the kind indulgence of this court inter alia for the opening of his GPF Account, release of his salary etc.”

It further noted that after Mishra’s elevation as a high court judge, he was not allotted a GPF account despite having submitted the relevant documents. The petition highlighted Mishra’s apprehension of being deprived of GPF benefits due to the ambiguity over the shift from the New Pension Scheme (NPS) to the General Provident Fund (GPF) account under the Old Pension Scheme. This situation caused immense mental and financial distress to the petitioner, leading him to refrain from accepting his salary from November 2023 onwards.

Among other prayers, the plea sought a declaration from the apex court asserting that the petitioner is entitled to subscribe to a GPF account in accordance with Section 20 of the High Court Judges (Salaries and Conditions of Service) Act, 1954.