A government-appointed law panel has recommended 70 years as the uniform age of retirement for heads of tribunals, saying at present there was a lack of clear cut guidelines among various ministries on the issue.
The Law Commission said the longevity or life expectancy of Indians is now comparable to that in developed countries and, “therefore, fresh proposals on the subject generally envisage enhanced age of retirement“.
But the panel lamented that in the absence of clear-cut guidelines for prescribing retirement age of chairpersons or members of various tribunals in the country, different ministries of the government adopt different yardsticks.
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In its 232nd report submitted to the Law Ministry, the Commission said the practice being followed in fixing the age of retirement of chairpersons and members of various tribunals reveals that “there exists no rationale in fixing different retirement age limits”.
The Law Commission has recommended that the age of retirement of chairpersons should be uniformly fixed at 70 years for all the tribunals.
“Likewise, the age of retirement of members of all the tribunals should be fixed uniformly at 65 years,” it said.
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The Commission said enhanced age of retirement is prescribed in higher echelons of the administrative and judicial service “because the professional experience gained by those working in them needs to be fully tapped for the good of the society.”
It pointed out that in the present liberalised economic era, the experience gained by government employees is tapped by many multinational companies after their retirement.
“These private enterprises pay hefty salaries to retired government employees because of their valuable professional experience gained during their service and put it to profitable use. In such a scenario, the government should utilise the services of its retired employees to the fullest extent possible,” the report added.