By Desaraju Surya
AMARAVATI: A judge of the Andhra Pradesh High Court recently purchased spectacles worth Rs 67,000.
Nothing wrong in it, in normal circumstances, but he got the money reimbursed by the state government “as a special case in relaxation of existing rules to the Hon’ble Judge”.
He is not alone.
Another judge bought spectacles worth Rs 62,500. Yet another spent Rs 60,000.
For his spects, another Lordship shelled out Rs 50,489.
These were just a few examples where the value of eyeglasses was over Rs 50,000 each.
In all these cases, the AP government reimbursed the amounts treating each as a “special case” and “relaxing the rules”.
These were not stray cases. In fact, as per the Government Orders available in the public domain, there were at least 90 such cases since January 2008 wherein the state government relaxed the rules and reimbursed the amount not only to the judges but also their kin.
The amounts ranged from as low as Rs 1,350 (years ago) to Rs 67,000 (by far the costliest for one) for eyeglasses purchased by some chief justices, judges, additional judges, retired judges, their spouses and children.
Going by established rules and the Government Orders, the justices and their kin are apparently not entitled to a reimbursement of money spent on specs.
Even the Supreme Court did not apparently include ‘spectacles’ in the list of ‘medical expenses’ to be covered.
Yet, the state government is being benevolent, treating every case of a judge as “special”.
Every GO invariably reads: “The Medical Officer, Civil Assistant Surgeon, Civil Dispensary, High Court of A.P., has scrutinized and returned the bills stating that the item in the bill is not a medicine, but mode of treatment. Hence, not reimbursable.
The Registrar General, High Court of A.P., has requested to sanction an amount of Rs.xxxxx/- to the Hon’ble Judge as a special case in relaxation of existing rules.”
The GOs further read: “Government after careful examination of the matter, hereby accord sanction for an amount of Rs. xxxxx/- to Hon’ble Justice XXXXXX, Judge, High Court of AP., incurred towards purchase of spectacles for His Lordship in relaxation of rules as a special case.”
In some cases, it was also mentioned that “the Hon’ble Judge comes under V.I.P. Cadre”.
And, the money for this is drawn under the head “Administration of Justice”!
In some earlier GOs on the subject, the words “as special case in relaxation of rules” were specifically underlined.
But evidently, as per the GOs, every case is treated as “special” and rules are relaxed every time to facilitate the reimbursement.
The Minister for Law is the authority to relax the rules and consider each case as special. So, every file goes up to the minister.
From May 30, 2019 to June 4, 2024, during the YSR Congress regime when the Chief Minister himself handled the Law portfolio, 32 such GOs were issued and a sum of Rs 9,01,114 reimbursed to judges and kin in relaxation of rules.
Between June 4, 2024 and May 15, 2025, another 18 GOs were issued and an amount of Rs 5,84,839 was reimbursed.
Majority of the GOs came to light after the incumbent government decided to upload all the hitherto hidden orders on the goir website.
Interestingly, in April 2021 when a then judge presented a bill for reimbursement of Rs 35,482 for specs purchased for her and her spouse in September-October 2020, the state government stated in the order that, “Government have decided to limit upto Rs 10,000 for each spectacles, considering that spectacles do not fall in the category of medicines.”
The judge was then reimbursed only Rs 17,970 (Rs 10,000 for self and Rs 7,970 for spouse).
This limit was apparently never enforced in subsequent (42) orders as the government has obviously been liberal.
Why only that particular judge was denied full reimbursement and why a ceiling was set (seemingly only in her case) defies logic, going by what happened next.
Total claims made since June 1, 2019 were for reimbursement of Rs 15,10,203.
Of that total, claims worth Rs 11.28 lakh were in excess of the Rs 10,000 limit each. No cuts here.
Perusal of the GOs revealed an interesting case.
A judge purchased one specs on June 29, 2024 for Rs 46,032 and another, on the same day, for Rs 47,320.
In one case, the High Court Registrar General wrote to the state government on July 26 seeking reimbursement of Rs 47,320 (Bill No. 1132).
In the other case, the Registrar General sought the reimbursement on August 21 for Rs 46,032 (Bill No. 1131).
For the bill presented in August, the amount was sanctioned on October 24 and for the other on November 14.
Both the cases were separately treated as “special case” and the amounts sanctioned “for His Lordship in relaxation of rules”.
The same judge purchased another specs for Rs 24,800 in March 2023 and got the money reimbursed (in May 2023), again as a special case.
These apart, the government also reimbursed another Rs 34,000 for this judge’s spouse’s eyeglasses in January 2024.
Only April 25, 2025, yet another bill was reimbursed for Rs 31,254 for the judge’s spouse’s spectacles.
The GOs revealed that this one judge alone was reimbursed a total of Rs 1,83,406 between 2023 and 2025, the gross highest for anyone.
Only one judge seemed to have followed the government’s April 2021 order in letter. In two instances in two years where she purchased specs, she got Rs 9,800 and Rs 7,500 sanctioned.
In the third instance also, the woman judge got a reimbursement of Rs 9,800 on May 8, 2025.
It is indeed so baffling why such a seemingly small issue was never addressed logically.
A simple change in rule would have prevented all this but clearly, over the years, none gave a thought to it.
In April 2019, the Supreme Court of India issued orders related to medical expenses incurred by the “Hon’ble Chief Justice, Hon’ble Judges, retired Hon’ble Chief Justices and Judges and their Lordships’ dependents”, based on which the state Health, Medical and Family Welfare Department issued a GO on August 22, 2019.
It becomes obvious that “spectacles” are not covered in those orders, thus requiring relaxation of rules in each case.