No impediment in raising retirement age of MP district court judges to 61 yrs: SC
New Delhi (PTI): The Supreme Court on Monday said there was no legal impediment in raising the retirement age to 61 years of judicial officers in Madhya Pradesh.
A bench comprising Chief Justice B R Gavai and Justice Augustine George Masih took note of submissions of the Madhya Pradesh Judges Association and asked the high court to take a decision, preferably in two months, on the issue on its administrative side.
The judges association moved the top court in 2018 for raising the retirement age of district judges from the current 60 to 62 years.
It later informed the bench that the Association is now seeking enhancement only up to 61 years, aligning with a precedent set in another state.
The Association had first made a representation to the Madhya Pradesh High Court in 2018.
The high court, however, rejected the request, citing the 2002 Supreme Court judgment in the All India Judges Association case, which it interpreted as disallowing such enhancement.
On Monday, CJI Gavai, however, referred to its more recent order in an application filed by the Telangana government in the same All India Judges Association case.
In that case, the Telangana High Court had sought clarification regarding increasing the retirement age of district judges to 61 years.
The court had permitted it, finding no legal impediment.
Relying on that precedent, the CJI said, “In that view of the order, we do not find that there should be any impediment in permitting the State of Madhya Pradesh to increase the age of superannuation of judicial officers working in the State to 61 years.”
The bench said any such increase would be subject to the Madhya Pradesh High Court’s decision on its administrative side.
“In case the High Court takes a decision to increase the age to 61, the same will be permitted,” it said.
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Two injuries, one DNF, a DQ as India end messy World Relays campaign
Gaborone (Botswana) (PTI): Amoj Jacob and Ragul Kumar got injured during the men's 4x400m and 4x100 races respectively as India ended their World Athletics Relays campaign in disappointment on the second day of competitions here on Sunday.
The Indian camp had high hopes of making the 2027 World Championships in the men's 4x400m relay but the team did not finish (DNF) the race as Jacob suffered cramps and pulled out of the race after taking the baton from the first leg runner Dharamveer Choudhary. Rajesh Ramesh and Vishal TK were to run in the third and fourth legs.
Those teams which could not qualify for the 2027 Beijing World Championships by reaching the final round of each of the six relay events on Saturday were given another chance in the second qualification round on Sunday.
The top two teams in each of the two heats (in all six relay events) booked the Beijing ticket on Sunday.
India will now have to try and qualify for the World Championships through the Top Lists of the World Athletics, which is a long and tedious process.
In the men's 4x100m race, third leg runner Ragul Kumar fell down the track after failing to hand over the baton inside the exchange zone to fourth leg runner Gurindervir Singh, which clearly showed the lack of coordination among the runners.
Harsh Santosh Raut and Animesh Kujur ran the first two legs.
The Indian quartet was disqualified and Kumar was seen being taken away from the Field of Play with the help of the volunteers.
It was a comedy of errors in the case of the women's 4x100m race, which saw the baton being dropped during an exchange between first leg runner Tamanna and second runner Nithya Gandhe, though the Indians finished the race in 53.09 seconds.
Gandhe started running quite a distance, but after realising that the baton was not in her hand, she turned and ran back to pick it up.
The only silver-lining for the Indian contingent was the national record time in the mixed 4x100m relay race, though the quartet of Ragul Kumar, Nithya Gandhe, Animesh Kujur and Sneha SS finished sixth in heat number two with a time of 41.35 seconds, bettering the previous national mark of 42.30 seconds set in March in Chandigarh.
The mixed 4x400m relay quartet of Theerthesh P Shetty, Kumari Saloni, Nihal William and Rashdeep Kaur ended at fifth in heat number one with a time of 3 minutes and 19.40 seconds.
On Saturday, all the five Indian relay teams had failed to make it to the respective final rounds and thus missed out on the 2027 World Championships berths.
