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.
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Nuclear sabre-rattling is Pakistan's stock-in-trade: India on Pak Army Chief's nuclear threat
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New Delhi (PTI): Nuclear sabre-rattling is Pakistan's "stock-in-trade", New Delhi said on Monday, in a strong response to Pakistan Army Chief Field Marshal Asim Munir's nuclear threat directed at India from the US soil.
India said Munir's remarks reinforced the well-held doubts about the integrity of nuclear command and control in Pakistan where the military is "hand-in-glove" with terrorist groups.
In a statement, the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) said India has already made it clear that it will not give in to nuclear blackmail and that it will continue to take all steps necessary to safeguard national security.
It is also regrettable that these remarks should have been made from the soil of a friendly third country, the MEA said in an apparent message to the US.
In an address to Pakistani diaspora in Florida's Tampa, Munir reportedly made the nuclear threat in case his country faced an existential threat in a future war with India.
The Pakistani Army Chief also warned that Islamabad would destroy Indian infrastructure, if they hit water flow to Pakistan.
"We are a nuclear nation. If we think we are going down, we'll take half the world down with us," media reports quoted him as saying.
The Pakistan Army Chief's comments are part of a pattern in Pakistan as whenever the US supports the Pakistan military, they always show their true colours of aggression, government sources said.
It is a symptom that democracy does not exist in Pakistan and it is their military which controls the country, they said.
"Emboldened by reception and welcome by the US, the next step could possibly be a silent or open coup in Pakistan so that the Field Marshal becomes the President," said a source.
Munir is currently on a visit to the US, his second in two months.
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