Shimla, July 25 -- The Himachal Pradesh high court (HC) has held that the deduction of pension from the salary of a retired HC judge subsequently appointed as chairman of the Himachal Pradesh Administrative Tribunal (HPAT) is impermissible under law.

The decision came in a writ petition filed by Justice VK Sharma (retd), challenging the state's repeated deduction of his pension from the fixed salary he was entitled to draw as HPAT chairman.

Citing a Supreme Court judgement, the HC held, "Since the Apex Court, in a catena of judgments, has held that judges cannot be considered as government employees, the service conditions of the chairman and members of the administrative tribunals shall be the same as applicable to the judges of the HC...