The Supreme Court said on Wednesday that state governments cannot cite financial burden as a reason for refusing to increase the retirement age of judges.
The Supreme Court had sought responses from all states and high courts regarding a petition filed in the Supreme Court urging that the retirement age of district judges across the country be increased from 60 to 62.
However, most states responded that the retirement age could not be increased because doing so would lead to additional financial burden and create a difference in the retirement age between judges and state government employees.
In this situation, the petition came up for hearing on Wednesday before a bench comprising Chief Justice Surya Kant and Justices Jayamalya Bagchi and V. Mohana.
At that time, the bench said, “Both reasons — additional financial burden and the difference in retirement age — are unacceptable. The states that have opposed increasing the retirement age of district judges should independently reconsider the matter and take a fresh decision within two weeks.
Although the High Courts in the respective states have differing opinions regarding increasing the retirement age, there is no obstacle for the states in approving such an increase. It stated that the objections of the High Courts to raising the age will be taken up for consideration at the appropriate time.
