SC's no to plea for raising retirement age of its judges

The Supreme Court today refused to entertain a PIL seeking a direction to the Centre to set up an authority to consider increasing retirement age of the apex court judges who presently superannuate at the age of 65.
A bench headed by Chief Justice T S Thakur referred to constitutional provisions on the issue and said the retirement age of Supreme Court judges has been settled by the Constitution itself and it cannot be looked into.
The bench, also comprising justices R Banumathi and U U Lalit, said the Constitution provides for the "authority" in case there is a dispute over the age of a judge.

"We must appreciate your enthusiasm for us. Tell us, do you like to withdraw this," the court observed which led counsel for petitioner Vibhor Anand, a law student, to withdraw the plea.
"That when the Constitution came into force in 1950, age of 65 was considered to be an extremely old age due to insufficient medical facilities and higher death rate, but the scenario has completely changed now as life expectancy has increased tremendously due to better medical facilities available in the country.
"It is submitted in the present times the increase in the retirement age of the Judges of Supreme Court is expressly needed so that the public at large could be benefited from their vast experience they have gathered over the years," the plea said.

The plea said that Anand had submitted a representation to the Centre to take appropriate steps to form an authority for determination of age of Supreme Court judges as mandated by "Article 124(2A) in view of 15th Amendment in the Constitution of India.