No change in retirement age for judges, says Ravi Shankar Prasad

New Delhi: The Centre on Wednesday denied media reports which suggested that it was  considering bringing a Constitutional Amendment bill to increase the  retirement age of Supreme Court and High Court judges. There are no plans to raise the retirement age of Supreme Court and High Court judges, law minister Ravi Shankar Prasad said after a meeting of the Union Cabinet.

There were reports that a constitutional amendment bill to increase the retirement age of judges of the SC and the 24 HCs by two  years was being prepared. “No, with capital N,” the minister said.

At present, while an SC judge retires at the age of 65, HC judges demit office at 62. Incidentally while responding to the media reports about government’s plans  to increase retirement age of judges, former Union minister Yashwant Sinha  has asked the opposition to fight “tooth and nail”, saying it is aimed  at denying a promotion to Justice Ranjan Gogoi.

“The move to raise the retirement age of judges by two years is a mischievous  move to deny promotion to Justice Gogoi. The opposition should oppose the  move tooth and nail,” the former BJP leader had tweeted earlier in the day.

Some reports in the media had claimed, citing a parliamentary standing committee on law, that the government was planning to increase the retirement age. A bill brought by the previous UPA government in 2010 to increase the  retirement age of high court judges from 62 to 65 years had lapsed after the  dissolution of the 15th Lok Sabha in 2014. The bill was introduced but was never discussed.