'You Want Judiciary To Enhance Its Own Age Of Retirement?' : Supreme Court Refuses To Entertain Plea For Uniform Age Of Retirement For HC & SC Judges

The Supreme  Court on Monday refused to entertain a PIL seeking uniform age of retirement for judges of the High Court and the Supreme Court.

A bench comprising Chief Justice of India SA Bobde, Justices AS Bopanna and V Ramasubramanian allowed the petitioner to withdraw the petition. The bench said that the petitioner may approach the Union Government or the Law Commission of India with a representation in this regard.

"You want judiciary to enhance its own age of retirement? What is this?", CJI Bobde asked the petitioner Advocate Ashwini Upadhyay.

Ashwini Upadhyay argued that the different age of retirements of HC judges and SC judges - 62 years for the former and 65 years for the latter - was irrational as both the Courts are Constitutional Courts.

"Both Supreme Court and High Court are courts of record. Both protect fundamental rights. Even the oath is similar. Having different ages of retirement in arbitrary and irrational", he submitted.

The CJI asked Upadhyay if he has consulted the High Court judges if they wanted to work longer.

Upadhyay said that many fine lawyers were not opting to be High Court judges because of the early age of retirement.

"I have many friends, the finest lawyers, who don't want to become HC judges because of the early retirement", he said.

"There is something wrong with their thinking if they don't want to become judges because of this. And you call them finest lawyers!", the CJI responded.

 Upadhyay requested the bench to tag his petition with the case in which the Supreme Court is considering the appointment of ad-hoc judges for High Courts. However, the bench was not persuaded and asked him to approach the Union Government or the Law Commission of India instead.