Supreme Court says Madhya Pradesh can raise judicial officers’ retirement age to 61 if rules permit. Court directs MP High Court to decide within three months.
In an important development, the Supreme Court of India has clearly stated that there is no legal problem in allowing the State Government of Madhya Pradesh and the High Court of Madhya Pradesh to increase the retirement age of judicial officers to 61 years, as long as the current rules allow it and the High Court agrees to do so through its administrative powers.
This clarification came while the Court was hearing a petition filed by the Madhya Pradesh Judges Association.
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The Association had requested that judicial officers be treated equally with other government employees, whose retirement age had already been raised to 62 years.
A Bench consisting of Chief Justice of India B.R. Gavai and Justice Augustine George Masih observed:
“We do not find that there should be any impediment in permitting the respondents i.e. State of Madhya Pradesh and the High Court of Madhya Pradesh to enhance the age of retirement of the judicial officers working in the State of Madhya Pradesh to 61 years.”
The Supreme Court further said:
“We, therefore, clarify that if the rules framed by the State of Madhya Pradesh permits and if the High Court takes a decision to enhance the age of retirement of the judicial officers in the State of Madhya Pradesh to 61 years the same would be permissible.”
Senior Advocate Ajit S. Bhasme appeared for the petitioner Judges Association, while Deputy Advocate General Harmeet Singh Ruprah represented the State Government.
The legal team also included AOR Sanjay Kumar Dubey and Advocates Rakesh Kumar Tewari, Shuchi Singh, Vivek Kumar Pandey, Krishna Kant Dubey, and Shivani Mishra for the petitioners.
For the respondents, AOR Sunny Choudhary, along with Arjun Garg, Sagun Srivastava, and Saaransh Shukla, assisted DAG Ruprah.
The Madhya Pradesh Judges Association had gone to the top court asking that the retirement age for judicial officers be increased from 60 to 62 years, the same as other state government employees. They also asked for changes to be made in two important service rules:
- Rule 16 of the Madhya Pradesh Higher Judicial Service (Recruitment and Conditions of Service) Rules, 2017
- Rule 14 of the Madhya Pradesh Judicial Service (Recruitment and Conditions of Service) Rules, 1994 (Amended)
Earlier, the Association had made a representation before the Madhya Pradesh High Court, which was rejected by the High Court on the administrative side.
The High Court had reasoned that a previous Supreme Court decision dated March 21, 2002, in the case All India Judges’ Association v. Union of India did not allow such an increase in retirement age.
However, while deciding this latest case, the Supreme Court referred to its order dated November 23, 2023, in I.A. No. 170936 of 2023 in W.P.(C) No. 643 of 2015.
In that case, the Apex Court had allowed the High Court of Telangana to amend its judicial service rules and align the retirement age of judicial officers with that of public servants, who now retire at 61 years as per Section 3(1A) of the Telangana Public Employment (Regulation of Age of Superannuation) Act, 1984.
The Supreme Court had then noted:
“Permission as sought by the High Court of Telangana is granted and the IA is made absolute in terms of prayer clause (I)… the increase in the age of retirement would be beneficial to the judicial officers.”
Using this as a reference point, the Supreme Court in the Madhya Pradesh case said that the same logic should apply to judicial officers in MP as well, for fairness and benefit to the judiciary.
The Court again clarified:
“We, therefore, clarify that if the rules framed by the State of Madhya Pradesh permits and if the High Court takes a decision to enhance the age of retirement of the judicial officers in the State of Madhya Pradesh to 61 years the same would be permissible.”
With this, the Supreme Court closed the case but gave an important direction to the Madhya Pradesh High Court’s administrative wing, that it must take a decision on this issue within three months.
Case Title:
Madhya Pradesh Judges Association v. State of Madhya Pradesh & Anr. (W.P.(C) No. 819/2018).
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