Raising judges' retirement age could have cascading effect: Justice Dept
New Delhi, December 25
Amid growing demands for increasing the age of retirement of judges of the Supreme Court and high courts, the Department of Justice has told a parliamentary panel that it could extend the years of service of non-performing judges and it might have a cascading effect with government employees making similar demands.
Past recommendations
- 114th Constitutional Amendment Bill introduced in 2010 to increase retirement age of HC judges to 65 yrs, lapsed with dissolution of 15th Lok Sabha
- Ex-Attorney General KK Venugopal has been urging Centre to consider increasing the retirement age of SC judges to 68 yrs
- BCI and other Bar bodies have demanded enhancing retirement age of HC and SC judges
- Parl panel on Law and Justice had in its report (2018) backed raising retirement age
- In western democracies, retirement age of judges is 70; in US, they are appointed for life
At present, judges of the high courts and those of the Supreme Court retire at 62 and 65, respectively.
“Enhancing the age of retirement might extend benefits in terms of extended years of service in certain non-deserving cases, and lead to non-performing and under-performing judges to continue (in service),” the Department of Justice said in a presentation made before the Parliamentary Panel on Personnel, Law, and Justice chaired by BJP MP Sushil Modi.
“It would be inappropriate if the increase in retirement age is considered along with other measures to ensure transparency, accountability in the appointments to the higher judiciary, and efforts to fill existing vacancies in the district and subordinate judiciary and bringing down arrears of cases pending in courts,” the department maintained. Law Minister Kiren Rijiju had in July this year told Parliament that there was no proposal to increase the retirement age of Supreme Court and High Court judges.
“Enhancement of the retirement age of judges will have a cascading effect as government employees at the Centre and state level, PSUs, commissions, etc, may raise similar demand. Therefore, this issue needs to be examined in totality,” it said.
