The Parliamentary Committee on Public Accounts has approved a motion by the Judicial Service Commission (JSC) to raise the salaries of magistrates.
The proposal by JSC was put forward for approval in the committee by Parliamentarian Abdulla Riyaz. The proposal, which increases the annual expenditure on magistrate wages by USD240,000, was passed unanimously by the committee.
Furthermore, the committee has also passed a proposal by the Department of Judicial Administration (DJA) to introduce a new allowance for Criminal Court judges for extra days worked to clear the backlog of the court. The proposal states each judge will be provided a daily allowance of USD32 for each extra day worked. The allowance is to be in effect for a duration of four months.
JSC had earlier revealed the Criminal Court needs 16 years to clear all pending cases at the court, even if working at full capacity every day. JSC said an average of 900 new cases are submitted to the Criminal Court every year.