Parliamentary Panel Recommends: Increase retirement age of SC, HC judges

Parliamentary Panel Recommends: Increase retirement age of SC, HC judges

A parliamentary committee has urged the government to hike the retirement age of Supreme Court and high court judges to tide over their shortage in higher judiciary.

The parliamentary standing committee on law and personnel said that to reduce the pendency of cases, the existing vacancies for judges need to be filled up immediately. It said the vacancies arising in the future should be filled up “strictly” as per guidelines laid down by the apex court in a 1993 judgement.

It recommended that the retirement age of SC judges be raised to 67 years from the present 65 and that of HC judges to 65 from the present 62.
 “… it feels that it would help in retaining the existing judges, which in turn would help in reducing both vacancy and pendency of cases in the short run,” the panel said.

It expressed concern over a large number of vacancies of judges in the high courts.

“The vacancy of judges is very high in high courts of Allahabad (56), Karnataka (38), Calcutta ( 39), Punjab and Haryana (35), Telangana and Andhra Pradesh (30) and Bombay (24),” it said quoting law ministry data.