Allowances are provided to judges' spouses on foreign trips: SC

Raising questions over the Government stand that no allowance other than air tickets are provided to spouses of Chief Justice of India and other Supreme Court judges during official foreign trips, the apex court on Friday said daily allowances has been extended to judges' spouses.

Raising questions over the Government stand that no allowance other than air tickets are provided to spouses of Chief Justice of India and other Supreme Court judges during official foreign trips, the apex court on Friday said daily allowances has been extended to judges' spouses.

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The Supreme Court Registry came out with the unusual statement, a day after the Government in response to an RTI application, said there was provision only for air-ticket to the spouse of CJI and other judges of the Supreme Court and no other allowance has been sanctioned by the Department of Justice.

"Government has been providing daily allowance not only to the spouse of the CJI but also to the spouses of other judges of the Supreme Court as and when they go abroad," MP Bhadran, Secretary General of the Supreme Court, said in a statement.

He was reacting to reports that the Supreme Court has sought revised sanction from the Government of "daily allowances" for the wife the CJI who accompanied him during visits to two countries last year.

As per the practice, the sanction for daily allowance has to be given before the start of the trip. However, in the case of CJI's trip to London in October last, the Department of Justice had not given the clearance for his wife's allowance, Bhadran said.

He said since the government has declined the allowance for the last foreign trip, a request was made for providing daily allowance to his spouse as has been done in the past.