There are three judges who are receiving a small pension of $3,600 a month, Independent Senator Basharat Ali said yesterday.

He was speaking in the debate on the President’s Emolument Bill, in the Senate yesterday. ’Can we justify that in our society?’ he asked.

Ali said this was less than the salary of one of the lowest positions in the public service-clerk/typist 1 who received a salary of $3,582 in 2007 (before the last collective agreement). ’Is there equity in that? I do not think so,’ he said.

Ali who said he was speaking on behalf of retired judges, also pointed out that a judge is not permitted to practise within 10 years of his retirement, which meant that a judge would be 75 years by then.

He said he wholeheartedly supported the bill, but he believed that in the interest of equity Parliament should look at other positions, principal among these is judges. He said he knew one judge who was quite disabled. He said one widow was getting $400 a month. He said when he raised the matter with Attorney General John Jeremie three years ago, he (Jeremie) stated that it was not his business. President Senate Danny Montano told Ali it was not the business of this debate and to move on.

His colleague Corrine Baptiste-McKnight said she had absolutely no reservation in supporting this bill. ’If one compares oranges with oranges and apples with apples, then one does not compare Presidents with CEPEP workers and old age pensioners. So I would have thought that equity is reflected in this bill because the former Presidents are being accorded equal status with the sitting President,’ she said.