High Court judges may retire at the same age as those in the Supreme Court

As per a recent report in the Times of India, Law Minister Kapil Sibal is planning to introduce a constitutional amendment that will place the High Court on par with the Supreme Court when it comes to retirement age. The constitutional amendment (No. 114) may be introduced in the upcoming winter session of the Parliament allowing High Court judges to retire at age 65, as opposed to 62 as is currently the practice..If it is introduced in the Parliament’s winter session, the constitutional amendment will become the second such amendment introduced by Law Minister Sibal, the first being the amendment concerning the Judicial Appointment Commission. Although the constitutional amendment was passed by a resounding majority in the Rajya Sabha it could not be introduced in the Lok Sabha, due to a numbering error..As for the 114th Amendment Bill, it was introduced in Lok Sahbha in 2010 by the then Law Minister Veerappa Moily but was not passed by the Parliament. One of the arguments put forth in support of this amendment is that it would reduce the number of retirees from the High Court, thereby providing the additional manpower required to clear the backlog of cases..Another argument in support of the bill, albeit one that is only fleetingly referred to in the TOI piece, is that it would reduce, to some degree, the “number of applications” for elevation to the Supreme Court. In other words, by having the same age of retirement, judges might not be as inclined to be elevated to the Supreme Court as they are now. But whether the increase in retirement age will put a complete end to this inclination is a question that can only be answered once the amendment actually comes into force..Meanwhile, the JAC Bill itself has been referred to a Parliamentary Standing Committee. If passed, it would signal the end of the collegium system of judicial appointments, a practice that has come under increasing amounts of criticism.