History of Earlier Pay Commissions in India

Since India’s Independence, seven pay commissions have been set up on a regular basis to review and make recommendations on the work and pay structure of all civil and military divisions of the Government of India.

Historically the Central Government has been setting up the Pay Commissions after a period of almost ten years. This is more of precedence than a statutory requirement. Government is not bound by any law or regulation to set up the 
Pay Commission after ten years.

The objective of the Pay Commission is to bring parity in the salaries and perks of Government Servents with their private sector counterparts and bring a sort of compatibility with the trends in the price rise of different commodities, thus encouraging them to lead an honest life.

The roots of practise of setting up Pay Commissions goes back to British Period when Royal Commissions were set up for various purposes including Pay Revisions– e.g. Aitcheson Commission (1886-87) and Islington Commission (1912-13).

At present India is perhaps the only country where this practice still followed. Even Britishers have long discontinued with this system.

Following is a brief summary of all of the Central Pay Commissions in India

PAY COMMISSION	WAS  CONSTITUTED  IN	SUBMITTED  REPOR IN	CHAIRMAN	FINANCIAL BURDEN	% HIKE
First	May 1946.	In One Year	Srinivasa Varadachariar
Second	Aug. 1957	Two Years	Jaganath Das	Rs. 396 million.	–
Third	Apr. 1970	Mar. 1973	Raghubir Dayal	Rs. 1.44 billion	–
Fourth	Jun. 1983	Four Years	P N Singhal	Rs.12.82 billion	–
Fifth	1994	Jan. 1997	Justice S. Ratnavel Pandian	Rs. 17,000 crore	99%
Sixth	Jul. 2006	Apr. 2008	Justice B N Srikrishna	–	–