The All-India Bar Association (AIBA) has urged the Union government to consider increasing the retirement age of judges of the Supreme Court and High Court by three years.
In a memorandum submitted to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, the Chairman and Vice-Chairman of the AIBA, Adish Aggarwala and S. Prabhakaran, said the government should make it clear that on retirement the judges should not be appointed to any Commissions.
They wanted the retirement age of Supreme Court judges to be increased from 65 to 68; High Court judges from 62 to 65 and for lower courts from 60 to 62.
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According to Mr. Aggarwala, the Prime Minister handed over the memorandum to Union Law Minister Salman Khurshid, who was also present during the meeting on November 25, on the eve of Law Day to look into the demand. Minister of State in the Prime Minister's Office V. Narayanaswamy was present.
The AIBA asked Dr. Singh to make it compulsory for every new entrant in the legal profession to work for two years as a law clerk with judges — those graduating from national law schools with judges of the Supreme Court and those from State-level law schools and Central Universities with those of High Courts and district courts. This would help reduce the arrears of cases in courts as the judges would get proper assistance and the budding lawyers would also get necessary experience.