Retirement age of SC and HC judges may increase, parliamentary committee is also in favor
Judge Retirement Age: Parliamentary committee recommended a performance appraisal system to extend the tenure of judges of the Supreme Court and High Courts beyond the existing retirement age. The judges of the Supreme Court retire at the age of 65, while the judges of the High Courts leave office at the age of 62. The committee also pointed out the need for amendment in the relevant articles of the Constitution of India.
A parliamentary committee on Monday recommended a performance appraisal system to extend the tenure of judges of the Supreme Court and high courts beyond the existing age of retirement. At present, judges of the Supreme Court retire at the age of 65 while judges of the High Courts leave office at the age of 62.
The Standing Committee on Law and Personnel, in its report on 'Judicial Procedures and their Reforms', also said that post-retirement assignments of SC and High Court judges in bodies or institutions funded by the public exchequer should be done to ensure their impartiality. revaluation can be done. It added that several stakeholders had objected to the post-retirement assignments given to judges.
During UPA-2, a bill was introduced in the Lok Sabha to bring the retirement age of High Court judges at par with that of Supreme Court judges. But the bill never came up for consideration and lapsed. The committee is of the view that the retirement age of judges should be raised in line with increased longevity and advances in medical science to improve the health of the population. "Accordingly, the committee recommends that the relevant articles of the Constitution of India need to be amended and the age of retirement of judges of the Supreme Court and High Courts may be increased suitably," the report said.
According to the committee headed by BJP's Sushil Kumar Modi, while increasing the retirement age of judges, the performance of judges can be re-evaluated on the basis of their health status, quality of judgments, and number of judgments delivered. "For this, a system of evaluation by the Supreme Court Collegium may be devised and implemented before recommending the extension of tenure of any judge," the report said.
According to reports, at present there is no proposal to increase the retirement age of High Court judges. It added that "the government has further informed that any need to increase the retirement age of High Court judges in the future will be considered by the government at an appropriate time in consultation with various stakeholders."
