Judges of the apex court, who retire at 65 might be allowed to continue till 68 with the changes in the Constitution. So also the retirement age of the High Court judges would be increased to 65 from 62.

The judges in India have the privilege of working till their prime age, whereas government servants attain the superannuation at the age of 60 and in some states it is 58. The judges of the superior courts are not compared to civil servants whose conditions of service are prescribed by legislative enactments and rules.

Talking to mediapersons, Union Law Minister H R Bhardwaj said, “The government is currently examining the proposal.”

The proposal emanates from the Justice M N Venkatachaliah Committee that was set up by the NDA government to review the Constitution.

The Committee in its report had suggested the increase of superannuation age by three years for both judges from Supreme Court and High Courts.

Recently, during the arguments on the custody of a child, when an  advocate pleaded that the grandfather was above 62 and old enough to take care of the 10 year-old child. Justice B N Agrawal, who is about 63 year-old commented that, “Do not say old enough. Look at us.”

In other countries

In the United States, there’s no age of retirement for federal judges. They are tenured posts.

On the other hand in England, judges retire at the age of 75. They, sometimes, even work for more than 40 years.