Union Law Ministry says No to increase SC and HC Judges retirement age

The Union Law Ministry has laid to rest any prospect for raising the retirement age of Supreme Court and High Court judges. Informed sources from both courts insist there is gross need to raise the retirement age limits to 67 years from 65 in the case of Supreme Court judges and to 64 years from 62 in the case of High Court judges.

The bone of contention appears to be the large amount of pending cases refusing to appreciably reduce in the foreseeable future in both the Supreme Court and High Courts all over the country. Reliable sources quote the amount of time and experience that judges in these courts garner in the course of their practice which later on turns into a damp squib as a result of the judges attaining retirement age before they are in a position to make use of this valuable experience for fruitful purposes in society.

Governmental ministries in India must make it their obligation to underline cases where more attention needs to be paid in order to uphold healthy traditions of pro-actively closing the yawning gap between the executive, judiciary and the people. Communication, transportation and even the judicial system goes for a toss otherwise.

Also, the existence of large number of unfilled vacancies for judges at 36% in these courts puts a spanner in the works of any notion of reducing pending cases backlogs. The option of increasing judges retirement age can only benefit the courts and the large number of litigants who have no alternative other than to incessantly wait it out in the hope of securing justice.

Increasing judges retirement age will only benefit the judges with much needed experience to sort out cases within an appreciably less time compared to the time less experienced judges would take to finish the case. It will bolster the laymen’s faith in the judiciary system within the country. There is faith deficit in the minds of the common man about the judicial system when justice inherently takes inordinate time delays in analyzing cases and framing sentences.