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The views expressed herein are personal to the writer and do not necessarily represent the views of the Bar Association.

Archive for April, 2010

What, Me Retire?

Saturday, April 24th, 2010

The author is indignant at the proposal of the Law Commission to discriminate between the retirement age of heads of Tribunals and the retirement age of other Members. He argues that it is illogical to have different retirement ages for members of the same Institution. He, however, is in favour of a general increase in the retirement age and argues that retirement at an age when the Judges’ intellectual faculties are at their peak results in a sheer waste of abilities, expertise and experience

 

The news reports announcing the probable fixation of retirement age of heads of Tribunals at 70 and Members at 65 prompts the reaction that the two limits of members of the same institution is illogical. There has to be uniform age limit for Judges, Members and Heads of Tribunal because all are discharging judicial functions.

 

The Law Commission of India in its Report No. 232 dt. 22-8-2009 has recommended that the retirement age of all heads of Tribunal may be raised to 70 Years and of members to 65, for the reason that there is no uniformity of retirement age for the heads of various Tribunals. In almost all the Tribunals the members and the heads of the Tribunal discharge similar judicial functions, hence, there is no reason for fixing the retirement age for the heads of the institution at 70 years and those of the members 65. The distinction if any, is invidious.

 

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