Plan to up retirement age of judges stuck

The proposal to increase retirement age of high court justices from 62 to 65 has run into trouble, with leader of opposition in Lok Sabha Arun Jaitley insisting that the government stop the practice of giving post-retirement jobs to judges.

He told law minister M Veerappa Moily that the opposition was with the government on increasing retirement age, but the tendency to dole out jobs to judges of high courts and Supreme Court had increased alarmingly.
Jaitley is reported to have told Moily that his party, BJP, was upset with some of the judgments delivered by certain judges just before retirement. All these judges got post-retirement assignments, he said.

The government should prepare certain rules and regulations for appointing retired judges, Jaitley said.  Pointing out that a retired chief justice of India alone could be appointed chairman of National Human Rights Commission, he said a similar provision should be made for other commissions, tribunals and semi-judicial forums as well.

The government, however, is not inclined to accept BJP’s fiat. It said judges were chosen with great care. Therefore, no conclusions should be drawn just because some people did something which was no to the liking of certain parties.