65 no age for SC judges to retire, govt must rethink: SCBA president Vikas Singh

New Delhi, May 23 (PTI) Supreme Court Bar Association (SCBA) president and senior advocate Vikas Singh on Friday said the retirement age of 65 years for apex court judges was a waste of their legal acumen.

Singh felt "privileged" to speak at the SCBA event in honour of Justice Abhay S Oka, whom he described as one of the most "dynamic and progressive judges".

"I personally feel that 65 is no age to retire. I think this is definitely a matter which needs to be rethought, and the government can well do this.Wasting the legal acumen of a judge at the age of 65 (years) is actually a waste to the system," he said.

He called Justice Oka’s verdicts "amazing work." "He (Justice Oka) provided that the grounds of arrest should be given to an accused when he is to be arrested. He ruled that even if you are having some not relied upon document, which normally in criminal law is not to be supplied to the accused, it has to be supplied, because there could be something favourable in that for the accused," Singh said.

The SCBA president said such judgments provided solace to the accused, if he was booked under a "draconian provision" of law.

"The other jurisdiction, which I would like to mention, is the jurisdiction in the matter of environmental justice. Justice Oka has taken the cause of the environment as if there is some personal commitment to the cause, the way he handled the environmental bench, and the way he was so strict," Singh said.

He said that Justice Oka was ready to provide relief to "a common man" and to "a common lawyer" if a case was made out in their favour.

"Everybody, regardless of whether he was rich or poor, whether he was well represented or not represented, whether it was a senior lawyer or a junior lawyer, everybody got relief in his court, and that really speaks volumes of what we expect from the judiciary," the SCBA President said.

He said that Justice Oka encouraged both women and young lawyers.

Justice Oka, the third senior-most judge, whose date of retirement is on May 24, a court holiday, served over two decades in judiciary, including as a judge of the Bombay High Court, Chief Justice of the Karnataka High Court following which he was elevated to the Supreme Court August 31, 2021. PTI MNR MNR AMK AMK