KATHMANDU, Aug 2: The Supreme Court (SC) has issued orders to increase the salary of Senior Sub-Inspectors of Police (SSIs) who are paid less than Sub-Inspector of Police (SI).
A joint bench of SC justices Til Prasad Shrestha and Sarnaga Subedi issued a mandamus and interim orders on Wednesday in the favor of the SSIs while responding to two different writ petitions, issuing orders as per their demands.
Fourteen SSIs including Binay Chand have filed two separate petitions on December 31, 2023 and June 27, 2024. They filed the petitions by crowd-funding when they got a lower salary than they used to get while serving as an SI. The former Superintendent of Police (SP) and advocate Ganesh Regmi fought their cases as the leading lawyer.
Regmi explained that now the SSI s will automatically get a higher salary than in the past as their salaries will be adjusted and they, too, can earn up to eight grades like an SI and an Inspector.
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The positions of SSI, Senior Head Constable and Assistant Head Constable were created by amending the Police Regulations as there was no promotion at the lower level of the police for years. Two years ago, in 2022, 1,171 SIs were promoted to the rank of SII.
But the problem is the SSIs who wear three stars got a salary lower than that of an SI. Even though they were SSIs, they got Rs 262 less than before. The salary of those who earned up to 8 grades as an SI was Rs 43,994. It is still the same.
But after being promoted to an SSI, they have been receiving 262 rupees less i.e. Rs 43,732.
According to the salary scale effective from July 16, 2024, the starting salary of an SSI is Rs 40,998. An SI receives Rs 34,730.
Those who are of the SI rank are given up to 8 grades at the rate of Rs 1,456 per grade. So, the salary of those who have worked for eight years as an SI is Rs 43,994.
But an SSI can earn only two grades. After adding two grades, at the rate of Rs1,367 per grade, an SSI receives only Rs 43,732. Because of this, the SIs who had earned 8 grades, received a lower salary when they were promoted to the rank of an SSI.
There are 1,171 SSIs in Nepal Police.
