8th Pay Commission: Who is Chairperson Justice Ranjana Prakash Desai, former Supreme Court judge?

The 8th Central Pay Commission (CPC) has received a large number of requests for interactions with the panel from 28 to 30 April 2026 in Delhi, it said in a statement last Friday. It further added that more meetings will be held in the national capital and in other states and union territories “in due course” over the next months.

Constituted by Prime Minister Narendra Modi last year, the 8th CPC is set to make big decisions on salary hikes and fitment factor, based on which updated compensation for central government employees and pensioners will be finalised. It had issued Terms of Reference (ToR) in November last year and since then, there has been much speculation over implementation of the salary hikes, arrears, amendments and proposed changes to pension structures.

How will the 8th Pay Commission make decisions?

The Pay Commission is a government panel established every 10 years to revise pay, allowances and pensions of central government employees and retired former servicemen. It is also responsible for wider implications of these revisions on contributions, retirement benefits and government spending.

The current panel is the eight such constituted by the central government since Independence. It is chaired by Former Supreme Court Justice Ranjana Prakash
Desai. Other members on the panel are Professor Pulak Ghosh, tenured Professor of Finance, Member of the Economic Advisory Council to the Prime Minister, as a Member of the Commission and Pankaj Jain, former IAS, as Member-Secretary.

The panel will gather views and inputs from employee unions, labour groups, ministries, pension bodies and other similar stakeholders; which will then be analysed to decide allowances, pension formula and salary structures for the relevant employee and retiree groups.

Who is Chairperson Justice Ranjana Prakash Desai?

Born on 30 October 1949 in Mumbai, Justice Ranjana Prakash Desai completed her Bachelor of Arts from the Elphinstone College in 1970 and her LL. B from the Government Law College in 1973.

She joined the legal profession on 30 July 1973 working as a junior in the chambers Late Justice SC Pratap, before he became a judge, where she got opportunity to appear in several civil and criminal matters, according to her profile on the official 8th CPC website.

Justice Desai also worked with her father Late SG Samant who was an eminent criminal lawyer, she was appointed as a Government Pleader on the Appellate Side of the Bombay High Court in 1979. She was appointed as Special Public Prosecutor for preventive detention matters for the Bombay High Court in 1986. She was appointed to the post of Chief Government Pleader, Appellate Side of the Bombay High Court on 1 November 1995. She was elevated to the Bench of Bombay High Court on 5 April 1996. She was elevated as a Judge of Supreme Court of India on 13 September 2011.

After her retirement from the apex court, she was appointed as Chairperson of the Appellate Tribunal for Electricity with effect from 1 December 2014, a position which she held till 30 November 2017. Her next tenure was as Chairperson of the Appellate Tribunal of Electricity, she was appointed as Chairperson of the Advance Ruling Authority, Income Tax, with effect from 2 July 2018, a position which she held till 29 October 2019.

She was appointed as Chairperson of the Delimitation Commission of India with effect from 6th March 2020, a position which she held till 5 May 2022 when the Commission headed by her completed its mandate and submitted the final Delimitation report for the Union Territory of Jammu & Kashmir.

Justice Desai: A number of Chairperson roles…

During the course of her career, Justice Desai has also served as Chairperson of the Search Committee to recommend names for the post of Chairperson and Members of the Lokpal.

She served as Chairperson of the Committee constituted by the Uttarakhand Government on 27 May 2022 to make a report to enable the Government of Uttarakhand to frame Uniform Civil Code for the State. She is presently heading the Committee constituted by the Government of Gujarat for a similar purpose.

She was appointed as the Chairperson of the Press Council of India vide Gazette Notification dated 17 June 2022 and served as such till 16 December 2025.

She is presently serving as Chairperson of the Eighth Central Pay Commission vide Gazette Notification dated 3 November 2025.