Increasing the retirement age for judges based on their performance

Context:The government has informed a parliamentary panel that it may not be feasible to increase the retirement age of Supreme Court and High Court judges based on their performance. A previous report by the Standing Committee on Law and Personnel had suggested implementing a performance evaluation system to extend the tenure of these judges beyond the current retirement age.

Key Points of the report:

• The Standing Committee on Personnel, Public Grievances, and Law and Justice has suggested increasing the retirement age for judges in their report submitted on August 07, 2023.
• They believe that as medical advancements and life expectancy increase, the retirement age should be adjusted.
• Currently, Supreme Court judges retire at 65 and High Court judges at 62, but the committee recommends amending the Constitution to raise these ages.
• Furthermore, they propose implementing an appraisal system by the Supreme Court Collegium to assess judges’ performance, health conditions, and the quantity and quality of their judgments before extending their tenure.

Discussion and disagreement about the appropriate retirement age for judges in the Supreme Court and High Court:

• Outgoing judges of the Supreme Court have often felt that they didn’t have enough time to make a meaningful contribution to the institution.
• In 2022, former Chief Justice of India N.V. Ramana had a conversation with Justice Stephen Breyer of the US Supreme Court, who was retiring voluntarily at the age of 83 after serving for 27 years.
• Ramana, who was set to retire after 8.5 years, commented that 65 was too early of an age to retire.
• However, Ramana still had a longer tenure compared to most other judges in the Supreme Court.
• Out of the 32 current judges, only a few, including Chief Justice Chandrachud and Justices Pardiwala, Viswanathan, and Datta, will serve for more than 8 years, which is above the average tenure of 5.4 years for sitting judges.

Why is the government against the notion of increasing the retirement age for Supreme Court and High Court judges?

• The government fears that the judiciary is a Republican institution and if the judges aged 62 become pensionists they could act more in favour of the party in power, hence why it doesn’t seem as an applicable option.
• If this change takes place it would enhance the SC collegium’s powers and diminish the extent of the Parliament’s power to assess each individual judge for an extension.
• Thus, judges get threatened by outside forces, which in the long run makes them not as objective as before.
• Besides, such a development would impose unnecessary pressure on the meagre manpower at the Judiciary and the Executive, all of which are involved in the appointment process.

Source: Indian Express

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