U.S. Supreme Court commentators regularly criticize its justices as being too old — one even went so far as to call the bench “decidedly geriatric.” Since the U.S. Supreme Court has no retirement age, most of its justices would be too old to sit on our Supreme Court. Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg is currently its oldest judge – she is 87 years old. For now, the debate remains purely academic. There are no plans to raise the retirement age of Supreme Court or Supreme Court judges. Shrikrishna added that under the current system, the eyes of “most [Supreme Court] Chief Justices are still directed to the Supreme Court to the north.” Former CJI MP Venkatachaliah, hailed by other panelists as the “Bhishma Pitamaha of Justice”, suggested setting the retirement age at 68. “We proposed this at the first meeting of all chief justices in 1993,” Venkatachaliah lamented. “I think it`s in the public interest for Supreme Court and Supreme Court justices to have longer terms. Chief justices of supreme courts should be treated as an extension of the Supreme Court. The CJI should be able to ask Supreme Court judges to act as chief justices of the Supreme Court and vice versa,” Venkatachaliah said. Lahoti also argued that by raising the retirement age, the country would benefit from greater experience of judges.
“They will have experienced judges in the prime of life,” he said. Currently, the retirement age is 65 for Supreme Court judges and 62 for Supreme Court judges. However, our Supreme Court justices must retire when they turn 65. Therefore, the debate here is more about whether we should raise the retirement age. For example, the debate made headlines again last year, when then-Chief Justice Gogoi recommended raising the retirement age for Supreme Court justices (currently 62) to 65. In 1974, the 58th Report of the Law Commission recommended that the retirement age of Supreme Court and Supreme Court justices be raised. In 2002, Justice Venkatachaliah`s report – the report of the National Commission on the Functioning of the Constitution – also recommended that the retirement ages of Supreme Court and Supreme Court judges be raised to 65 and 68 respectively. These data help to contextualize the debate on raising the retirement age.
For example, it can show exactly how different retirement ages would change length of service. This shows us that the proposal to raise the retirement age to 70 is essentially a proposal to double the seniority of Supreme Court justices (assuming the average age of appointment remains around 60). In this way, it can serve as a useful tool for analysing rights both for and against raising the retirement age. Lahoti also said that if the retirement age for Supreme Court and Supreme Court judges is equal, judges should be persuaded to come to the Supreme Court, as they would prefer to stay and finish their work at the Supreme Court. Chief Justice Gogoi argued that raising the retirement age will allow the High Courts (HC) to better deal with cases over Rs 43 lakh pending before them. One of his arguments was that raising the retirement age could ensure “the continued availability of more experienced judges for longer terms”. He pointed out that the panel`s retired judges continued to work as arbitrators after their retirement, even though they were all over 75. “We conduct investigations, take evidence, conduct detailed hearings and award sentences. I have been retired for 15 years,” Lahoti said. “They hope that one day they will appear before the Supreme Court.
They make judgments based on what they think the Supreme Court would say. This is completely contrary to our judicial system. Your judgment should be your judgment. This decision will make Supreme Court justices feel independent,” Shrikrishna said. In accordance with article 124, paragraph 2, of the Constitution, the retirement age of Supreme Court judges is 65 years. Section 217 (1) of the Constitution provides that judges of the High Court shall retire at the age of 62. Initially, the retirement age for High Court judges was 60, but was later raised to 62 by the 114th Amendment to the Constitution in 1963. It was also suggested that senior lawyers be appointed as “ad hoc civilian judges in the lower courts” to fill vacancies and resolve cases expeditiously. As shown in the following figure, this average has changed over time.
In 2003, it fell almost as low as 56 years. Only Judge SH Kapadia was appointed this year. He was 56 years and about 2 months old when he was raised on the Supreme Court. In contrast, the average age of engagement rose to around 62 in 2015. CJI Gogoi noted: “A judge needs time to develop, and if he is able to put into practice innovative ideas based on a wealth of experience, he is close to retirement. This can be avoided by raising the retirement age to an appropriate level so that his vast experience, insight and expertise can be put to use for longer. The idea of raising the retirement age for judges has been discussed for decades as a solution to cope with the increase in cases and vacancies for judges. There was also discussion of ensuring that judges do not seek employment with the executive branch after retirement. By Aneesha Mathur: Raising the retirement age of judges is a way to reduce huge backlogs of court cases, India`s retired Chief Justices (CJI) said in an online roundtable on Saturday. Senior Counsel Arvind Datar, who moderated the panel, raised the issue of delays in processing cases in Indian courts. He noted that more than 50 lakh cases are currently pending before Indian courts. “The draft Constitution (114th Amendment) was introduced in 2010 to raise the retirement age of Supreme Court justices to 65.
However, it was not considered by Parliament and expired with the dissolution of the 15th Lok Sabha,” Rijiju said in a written response to Rajya Sabha. There is no proposal to raise the retirement age of Supreme Court and Supreme Court justices, Union Law and Justice Minister Kiren Rijiju told parliament on Thursday. While CJI Gogoi has written about Supreme Courts, the same reasoning could be applied to the Supreme Court. Of course, the question arises as to how long judges currently sit on the Supreme Court. Since the retirement age is fixed, another way to ask this question is: At what age are judges appointed to the Supreme Court? Former CJI RC Lahoti said: “The retirement age [of judges] must be raised, but so should Supreme Court and Supreme Court judges. If the retirement age is the same, this frantic race will stop. The dignity of the office of Chief Justice of the Supreme Courts, which is eroding day by day, will be restored. India`s Attorney General, K K Venugopal, has been one of the strong advocates for lengthening judicial terms and has consistently spoken about it every time Supreme Court judges leave the courts since 2017. In 2021, the Supreme Court refused to uphold a POA to set a uniform retirement age for High Court and Supreme Court judges. “The schedule for the entire combination can be set by the system administrator. Have lawyers as commissioners to register evidence. Lawyers need to develop a culture of justice,” said the former CJI.
