SC won’t raise retirement age of judges

The Supreme Court on Friday declined to hear a plea for a direction to the government to set up an authority to consider raising the age of retirement of Supreme Court judges from the present 65 to 70.

A Bench led by Chief Justice of India T.S. Thakur allowed Vibhor Anand, a law student, to withdraw his PIL while pointing out that the age of retirement of apex court judges is already fixed in the Indian Constitution.

Mr. Anand contended that when the Constitution had come into force in 1950, 65 was considered “extremely old”. However, life expectancy has increased due to better medical facilities. To this, Chief Justice Thakur, in a lighter vein said, “Some of us look 75 though we are actually less than 65.”