Higher court judges retire young in India: SC | India News – Times of India

NEW DELHI: At a time when justice dispensation by the High Courts are challenged by an unprecedented disaster arising from an unsavoury cocktail of big pendency of 57 lakh circumstances and practically 40% emptiness in Judge energy, the Supreme Court hinted at growing the retirement age of HC judges.
While deciding to activate a 5-decade lengthy dormant Article 224A to inexperienced sign appointment of retired HC judges as tenure specified advert hoc judges, a bench of Chief Justice S A bobde and Justices S Okay Kaul and Surya Kant mentioned the current retirement age of HC judges at 62 years might be the youngest in the world.
“We may say that broadly, it is amongst the youngest ages of retirement of judges of the apex Court of a state in comparison with other democracies of the world,” the bench mentioned and described the disaster confronted by HCs as unprecedented.
What exacerbates the frustrations of litigants is the chilly statistics on snail-paced adjudication of circumstances rising from the manpower starved HCs and the unabated rush of litigation. Nearly a lakh of civil and felony circumstances pending in the HCs are over 30 12 months-outdated. More than 1.5 lakh circumstances are between 20-30 12 months-outdated and over 10 lakh pending circumstances are greater than a decade outdated.
The lengthy gestation interval for Judge appointment, which frequently takes greater than six months from the date of suggestion by the High Court Collegium, early retirement on the age of 62 years and the drastic loss of revenue are the key causes which dissuade profitable legal professionals from accepting invitation to turn into Judges of constitutional courts.
The CJI-led bench mentioned, “The delays in this is a matter of concern as the recommendation of the collegium should not remain pending for a long period of time. The aforesaid process (for appointment of Judges) should be completed at the earliest. We may note that in some of the courts it is a challenge to persuade competent and senior lawyers who may have large practices to accept the position of the judge, and the pendency of their names for a long period of time does little to encourage them.”
The UPA authorities’s legislation minister M Veerappa Moily had on August 13, 2010 launched the Constitution (114 Amendment) Bill for growing the retirement age of HC judges from current 62 years to 65 years. It was in 1963, that the Constitution was amended to extend the retirement age of HC Judges from 60 to 62 12 months.
The UPA authorities had cited “global practices, increase in life expectancy, improved health standards, need for utilisation of experience and wisdom of senior employees, etc” in the assertion of objects and causes to hunt to extend the retirement age of HC judges. The Bill couldn’t turn into legislation and lapsed.
The Parliamentary Standing Committee on Personnel, Public Grievances, Law and Justice in its report on the Bill mentioned: “It should be appreciated that in most of the developed countries, the retirement age of judges is above 65 years. For example, in the United Kingdom and Canada, the retirement age is 75 years, while for Japan the retirement age is 65 years. As such, in other countries, this is an established practice.”
It mentioned, “Maturity makes a man perfect. One can give his best during this ripe stage of life. An aged and experienced person can give his best and matured opinion/judgment in an easy manner.” The Committee in its suggestions had supported the rise in retirement age of HC judges.
However, it had flagged the problem of lengthy delays in appointment of HC Judges, because the SC did on Tuesday after greater than a decade. The Committee felt that with the retirement of judges of HC and SC coming at par, there could be much less competitors among the many HC judges to get elevated to the SC which presently means three years’ extra service.