Markandey Katju meets Jayalalithaa

Chairman of the Press Council of India and former Supreme Court Judge, Markandey Katju, called on Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Jayalalithaa at the Secretariat here and requested her to extend certain retirement benefits to former judges of the Madras High Court. Mr. Justice Katju, who was the Chief Justice of the Madras High Court from November 2004 to October 2005, in a memorandum stated that the benefits such as provision for engaging the services of a personal assistant and a security guard and telephone utility charges with specified limits were being extended to retired judges of high courts in Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh and Delhi. Alternatively, Rs.15,000 might be granted to each retired judge for meeting the monthly salary expenses of a personal assistant and a driver. A maximum of Rs.2,500 could be granted for telephone utility charges. As many retired judges resided in far off places, they required police guards. One such guard might be posted at the residence of each retired judge. He pointed out that retired chief justices and judges of the Supreme Court were given lump sum amounts monthly to engage office assistant and driver of their choice. 
Quoting government rule, he said that at the time of retirement, a judge could take with him movable articles such as furniture, refrigerator and television set on payment of the depreciated value specified. The State government could consider widening the scope of this scheme to include cars too. Ms. Jayalalithaa assured him that she would look into the matter.
Later, Mr. Justice Katju told The Hindu that during his meeting with the Chief Minister, he told Ms. Jayalalithaa that he respected her for adherence to the Constitutional scheme of independence of judiciary. “When I was the Chief Justice here, she was the Chief Minister. She never applied any pressure on me in recommendation of names of persons for judges or in any other matter. For that, I respect her.”
To a query on the functioning of the media in the State, Mr. Justice Katju said he would not like to comment as he had not studied it. He had not received any complaint about violation of the freedom of media in Tamil Nadu.