SC raises retirement age of MP judicial officers from 60 to 61 years

The Supreme Court on Thursday raised the retirement age of judicial officers of Madhya Pradesh from 60 to 61 years.

In an interim order, a bench comprising Chief Justice B R Gavai and Justices Prasanna B Varale and K Vinod Chandran referred to a similar decision taken by the Telangana High Court. It asked why judicial officers should be denied the relief when the state government was willing to do so.

It is needless to say that judicial officers as well as other employees of the state government draw salaries from the same public exchequer, the bench said, adding that the retirement age of other state government employees is 62 years.

In any case there is a difference of one year between the retirement age of high court judges and the district court judges, the court said.

High court judges retire at the age of 62 and now the age of superannuation of district court judges in Madhya Pradesh will be 61.

The bench posted the plea for final hearing after four weeks.

Senior advocate Gopal Sankaranarayanan, appearing for the Madhya Pradesh High Court, opposed the submissions seeking enhancement of retirement age of district court judges.

On October 27, the top court had sought responses from the Madhya Pradesh government and the high court registry on a plea challenging the refusal to enhance the retirement age of judicial officers in the state from 60 to 61 years.

On May 26, a bench headed by Chief Justice B R Gavai had said there was no legal impediment in raising the retirement age to 61 years for judicial officers in Madhya Pradesh.