Let us take these factors one by one. The essential point in article 193 is the retiring age of the Judge of the High Court-whether it should be sixty or sixty five. It is left in some quarters-and I do not say there is no ground whatsoever for that feeling-that at the age of sixty a man becomes incapable of working actively and making his contribution to the service of the country, that on the bench he finds it difficult to command that concentration of mind which is necessary and that therefore sixty should be the proper age for retirement. On the other hand it is felt-and there is very good ground for that feeling too-that the retiring age should be higher at the present moment, because people are often found to be very actively engaged in public life much after sixty. We have many instances of people who can devote a great deal of energy and who can command a great deal of concentration in very important kinds of work on behalf of the State. That being so, there is no reason why in judicial work one should be unfit and incompetent after the age of sixty. So far as I am concerned I make no secret that I am strongly in favour of making it higher than sixty-at least sixty two-for the High Court Judge. Now, the question that we have to consider is how the age-limit is affected by other considerations. Take it from the point of view of the Judge. The man who is going to be appointed and who has to make his choice as to whether he should accept the office when it is offered to him or decline it-what are the matters that will enter into his consideration? The question of salary comes in, the question of pension comes in, and also a very important thing-the question as to whether or not after having held the office for a particular period of time, he will be allowed to practise in other Courts, if not in the same High Court, or in the courts subordinate to its jurisdiction. Now the man who is going to appointed, we must assume, is one of the men pre-eminently fitted for the work in the province. The choice would naturally fall upon the man who is most distinguished in the province for legal acumen and ability. He has to make his choice: if he finds that there are only about five years to run, that there will be no pension at all after he attains the age of sixty, that he will have to be thrown back upon his own resources, or that the pension would be rather a small pittance and not that liberal pension which is awarded to the Judges of the High Court in Great Britain, for instance, which is 75 percent of their salary; and when he finds also that there is no other way in which he can earn an income: that he cannot possibly go even to another High Court or to the Courts under the jurisdiction of another High Court and take up engagements in important cases; if he is debarred from practising altogether, then what is he to do? The only conclusion which he can come to is that although it is post of very high dignity and prestige, he is reluctantly obliged to decline it. That will be the result. I submit that it will be a loss because the State will fail to command the services of men who really count, and instead of those men the second-rate or third-rate men will have to be selected for the office of the High court Judge. I submit therefore that it is a very serious matter. It is not at all a trivial matter-this question of age. It really acts and reacts upon other considerations. If he has to retire at sixty, well and good. But has he got a good pension? Can he make a living from the practice of law not in the High Court where he held office but in some other Court, in some other High Court, or in one of the Courts subordinate to that other High Court?
