The Congress said on Tuesday judicial independence had come under scrutiny in recent years and demanded a broad law to strengthen service conditions of judges and ensure meaningful separation of powers between the judiciary and the executive.
Opening the debate on The High Courts and Supreme Courts (Salaries and Conditions of Service) Amendment Bill 2021 that clarifies matters pertaining to judicial pensions, Congress MP Shashi Tharoor flagged “government’s increasing influence over judicial appointments and the executive’s overarching, sometimes invisible and indirect control over the judiciary.”
He along with several other MPs demanded that retirement age of Supreme Court judges be raised from 65 to 67 years and that of high court judges be raised from 62 to 65 years to manage pendency of cases, currently a whopping 4.4 crore (3.77 crore in subordinate courts; 57 lakh in high courts and 73000 in the SC).
