Government silent on fresh bill to hike retirement age of High Court judges
New Delhi: Amid an ongoing debate on vacancies in the higher judiciary,
government has preferred to maintain silence on bringing afresh a bill
to increase the retirement age of high court judges from 62 to 65 years.
Responding to a question in the Lok Sabha yesterday on whether any
proposal for extension of retirement age of high court judges is under
consideration of government, Minister of State for Law P P Chaudhary
said in a written reply that a bill brought by the previous UPA
government in 2010 lapsed after the dissolution of the 15th Lok Sabha in
2014.
“The Constitution (114th Amendment) Bill, 2010 which provided for
increasing the retirement age of High Court Judges from 62 years to 65
years was introduced in the Lok Sabha on July 25, 2010. Thereafter, the
Bill was referred to the Parliamentary Standing Committee for
examination and report, which recommended that the proposed bill in its
present form should be passed without delay.
“The Bill could not be taken up for consideration and passing in the
Parliament and lapsed with the dissolution of the 15th Lok Sabha,” he
said.
The UPA proposal had sought to bring at par the retirement age of high court judges with that of Supreme Court judges at 65.
At a time when the 24 high courts face a shortage of nearly 450 judges,
the government and the judiciary have agreed that an extraordinary
provision of the Constitution can now be invoked to appoint retired
judges with proven integrity and track record as judges of high courts
to tackle rising pendency.
Nearly three crore cases are pending in courts across India.
PTI
