Draft bill for 50pc allowance for higher court judges cleared

The Cabinet on Monday cleared the draft of the Supreme Court Judges (Remuneration and Privileges) (Amendment) Bill, 2014 with a provision to provide 50 per cent special allowance to higher court judges. The approval was given at the regularly weekly meeting of the cabinet held at Bangladesh Secretariat with Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina in the chair. Briefing reporters after the meeting, Cabinet Secretary M Musharraf Hossain Bhuiyan said the Law and Justice Division came up with the proposal for amending the existing law to provide 50 per cent special allowance to the Supreme Court judges of their basic salaries. Replying to a question, he said that only the Supreme Court judges will be entitled to get the special allowance under the proposed amendment to the law while the judges of the lower courts would not come under this law, according to a news agency.