SC to hear plea for uniform retirement age for SC and HC judges

The Supreme Court is scheduled to hear on Monday a plea for fixing uniform retirement age for the apex court and High Courts judges.

A bench of Chief Justice S A Bobde and Justices A S Bopanna and V Ramasubramanian would take up the PIL by BJP leader and advocate Ashwini Kumar Upadhyay, on April 12.

The petitioner sought direction from the top court to the Centre to take steps to make the retirement age of judges of High Courts and Supreme Court uniform, as it was irrational to have different retirement age for judges of constitutional courts.

“Alternatively, being the protector of right to speedy justice guaranteed under Article 21, the court may use its plenary constitutional power to declare that the judges of High Courts shall retire at the age of 65 years until the Centre takes steps to reduce the pendency of cases from 15 to three years," the plea contended.

It pointed out in developed countries, the retirement age of higher court judges varied from 70-80 years.

For example, judges retired at the age of 75 years in the UK and Canada and the age of 70 years in Australia, the Netherlands, Ireland, Belgium, Norway. Moreover, the judges worked for a lifetime in the United States, Russia, New Zealand and Iceland, subject to their physical-mental fitness.

The plea contended that uniformity in the retirement age was not only necessary to reduce the pendency of cases but it would also attract and retain the best legal talent on the bench. To reduce judicial and procedural error, India needs more experienced judges, the petitioner said.

At present, the retirement age for the apex court judges is 65 years whereas, for the High Court judges, it is 62 years.

The plea argued that the judges of the High Court will work independently, without any expectation to move the top court, if the retirement age is made uniform.

“Finest lawyers don’t want to become a judge of the High Courts because instead of continuously giving valuable services to the nation, High Court Judges are compelled to retire at a very early age i.e, 62 years," said the plea.

The petitioner argued that uniformity in the retirement age of judges will create a pool of experienced judges in High Courts, which will be extremely useful for deciding the cases of extreme importance or which require deep knowledge for interpretation of the Constitution.