When the gavel falls, let it fall for good
In the theatre of democracy, few judges carry the responsibility to exit the stage without seeking another position.
Updated At : 07:27 AM Jun 09, 2025 IST
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THERE is a certain poignancy to the sight of a judge stepping down from the Bench — a silhouette of gravity retreating into the wings. In Britain, they might disappear into the privacy of golf courses and memoirs. In India, however, the curtain call at the age of 65 often marks not an end, but an overture. For practising courtroom lawyers, 65 is both the old age of youth and the youth of old age. Most lawyers at 65 assume that they have enough in their tanks to coast for a decade or two more. That luxury is not available to judges who have often lived like hermits and worked like horses and are yet put out to pasture.
