Retirement age of judges worldwide

LAHORE: As the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI)-led opposition continues to sternly repel a proposed Constitutional amendment aimed at extending the tenure of judges and increasing their retirement age, research conducted by the “Jang Group and Geo Television Network” shows that almost every country limits the term of its arbiters, imposing either a mandatory superannuation age or appoints them for a certain number of years.

According to “Judiciaries Worldwide,” a resource on comparative judicial practice that explores these traditions and offers insights about different approaches to court procedure and judicial administration.

Apex court justices globally are usually appointed for a term of certain years, have a mandatory retirement age, or given ‘life tenure’ with a mandatory retirement age. Mandatory retirement age ranges from 60–75 years.

In Albania and Lithuania, for example, the highest court judges are appointed for nine years, in Bolivia and Switzerland they are assigned the task for six years, the term length is eight years for Colombian and Costa Rican arbiters, it is 10 years in Georgia, 15 years in Mexico and 12 years in South Africa.

In Pakistan, Article 179 of the Constitution states that a Supreme Court judge shall hold office until the age of 65, while Article 195 sets the retirement age for high court judges at 62.

The “Judiciaries Worldwide,” maintains that a notable exception in this context is the United States federal judiciary, where those donning black robes can serve for life, with no mandatory retirement age.

Beginning at age 65, a judge may retire at his or her current salary or take senior status after performing 15 years of active service or when he or she is 80 years old.

However, at least 32 American states have now imposed a mandatory retirement age, with 18 of them setting the departure age at 70.

According to the American National Centre for State Courts, trial courts are more lenient, with several states setting either a higher mandatory retirement age or no age at all for at least some of their trial judges. Moreover, some of these age restrictions allow judges to finish out the year or the term in which they reach the specified retirement age.

By the way, Justice Wesley Ernest Brown (1907-2012) was the oldest person to serve as a federal judge in the history of the United States, and the world, actively hearing cases till the age of 104. He was holding court even one month before his death.

Brown was a United States district judge in the District court of Kansas State.

Oliver Wendell Holmes (1841-1935) was nearly 91 years old when he doffed his robes, making him the oldest United States Supreme Court justice ever.

In India, the mandatory retirement age for high court judges is 62 years, for Supreme Court justices it is 65 years and it is 60 in lower courts.

According to a top Indian newspaper “The Hindu,” over 33 million cases are classified as backlogs I world’s largest democracy, and more than 28.4 million cases are pending in the subordinate courts alone.

It is imperative to note that the judge-population ratio in India is among the lowest in the world at 19.66 judges per million (10 lakh) people as of today.

Contrasting this, in 2016, the U.K. had 51 judges per million people, the U.S. had 107, Australia had 41, and Canada had 75.

Retirement age of 70 for judges is common in most countries like Japan, Belgium, New Zealand (retired judges under 75, however, can be appointed here as acting judges in certain proceedings), Denmark, Ireland, Ghana, Jamaica, Kenya, the Netherlands, Norway and Australia (life tenure for federal judges here was abolished in a 1977 constitutional referendum).

Requiring judges to retire at age 70, or at any particular age, is rooted in the idea that litigants are entitled to mentally competent arbiters.

In England, Judges, magistrates, and coroners are allowed to continue to serve until they are 75, as is the case in Brazil, Chile and Canada.

In Sri Lanka, the age of retirement of Judges of the Supreme Court is 65 years and of Judges of the high court can continue working till attaining the age of 61 years. In case of Court of Appeal judges, it is 63 years

In Bangladesh, an Apex Court Judge shall hold office until he attains the age of 67 years.

The retirement age for judges is 65 years in UAE.

In Austria and Barbados Apex Court judges retire

at 65, they relinquish charge at 60 in Ethiopia and at retire at the age of 68 in Lebanon.