A Parliamentary panel has recommended to raise the age of retirement of High Court judges from 62 to 65 years. If this happens, age of superannuation in both the Supreme Court and High Courts will be the same.
“The Members of the Committee expressed that there is a need to revisit the age of retirement of High Court judges to compensate for the large number of vacancies existing in High Courts," the department-related standing committee on personnel, public grievances and law and justice said.
In its report on demands for grants for the Law Ministry, the committee noted that in the Supreme Court of India and High Courts, 12 per cent and 39 per cent posts of judges, respectively, are vacant.
“While discussing the issues of vacant positions of judges and pendency of cases in the country, members of the committee felt that the huge pendency of cases at all levels of judicial hierarchy can be dealt with by increasing the number of working days of judges," the committee said.
The committee said it is of the view that the justice delivery system in the country is moving towards a stage, where both vacancy positions of judges and pendency of cases are increasing year after year and this state of affairs may erode the trust of the public on the justice delivery system.
“When judges of the Supreme Court can work up to 65 years of age, there is no rationale in retiring the High Court judges at 62, and therefore, (it) recommends the Department to raise the age of retirement of High Courts judges from 62 to 65 years so that there is uniform age of retirement in both Supreme Court and High Courts," the report said.
In the High Courts, as against the approved strength of 1,080 judges, only 661 are in position with 419 vacancies. Further, there are 4.34 crore cases pending in the country, which includes 3.77 crore in subordinate courts, 57 lakh (approx.) in High Courts and 66,000 (approx.) in the Supreme Court as on February 28, 2021.
(Published 17 March 2021, 11:37 IST)
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