Maharashtra court staff to wear black bands on Oct 16-17, seek High Court pay scale
Subordinate court employees will work wearing black armbands as the second phase of their "equal work, equal pay" agitation begins; retired staff will hold a one-day dharna on October 17.
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Employees of the subordinate courts in Maharashtra are preparing to take to the streets once again. Their demand is straightforward: they should be given the same pay scale as the staff of the High Court. The Maharashtra State Court Employees Federation is running an "equal work, equal pay" agitation on this demand.
Chandrakant Bankar, an office-bearer of the federation, said the second phase of the agitation will begin on October 16 and 17. On these two days, all serving court employees across the state will carry out their daily work wearing black bands. Work will not stop, but the discontent will be plainly visible.
The agitation will include not only serving employees but also retired ones. On October 17, retired court employees in all districts of Maharashtra will, of their own accord, stage a one-day dharna in front of the respective District Collector's office. Through this, they will back the demand of the serving employees.
The matter is an old one. A proposal to give subordinate court employees the same pay scale as High Court employees was sent to the government on the basis of a report dated January 31, 2025 of a special committee of the Bombay High Court. The proposal is still awaiting approval in the Chief Minister's Office.
The proposal has been pending for about twenty months, yet the government has not given its final approval. This has caused deep resentment among court employees in the state. The agitation will be continued in phases to draw the government's attention to the issue.
The federation says equal work, equal pay is a legitimate demand of the employees of Maharashtra's subordinate courts and that getting the High Court pay scale is their right. According to the organisation, court employees make an important contribution to the functioning of the justice system, and the delay in deciding on the proposal to raise their pay is unfortunate.
The organisation's main aim is to draw the government's attention through the unity of serving and retired employees and to get the stalled pay scale proposal approved at the earliest. Retired employees too have decided to join the agitation of their own accord.
The federation has expressed its resolve to make the second phase of the agitation a success. In view of this, it has appealed to all serving and retired court employees of the state to take part in the agitation in large numbers.
