Retirement age of judges should not be raised beyond 65, we too would like some rest: Justice Ravindra Bhat

The retirement age of judges of the Supreme Court and the High Courts should not be extended beyond the current age limit of 65 years, Supreme Court judge Justice S Ravindra Bhat opined on Friday..While the retirement age of High Court judges, which currently stands at 62, could be raised to 65, it should certainly not be increased beyond that since judges would also like to have some rest, he said."I don't think the age of retirement should be extended. I think it is enough. Maybe for High Court judges it should be increased to 65, but certainly not beyond that. We too would like to rest," Justice Bhat quipped.He reasoned that younger persons should also be given an opportunity to serve at the Bench."I think it's time also that we recognise that younger people also have a role. With youth, comes fresh ideas. They bring to the table freshness of enquiry and fullness of information about contemporary events which we old folk would not only be insulated [from] but also resistant to," he said..Justice Bhat was speaking at the launch of the book Finding a Straight Line between Twists and Turns by Aseem Chawla on the evolution of the Indian tax landscape. The event was organised at the India Habitat Centre and was also attended by the Delhi High Court's Justices Vipin Sanghi and Vibhu Bhakru and President of the Society of Indian Law Firms (SILF), Dr. Lalit Bhasin..Regarding taxation, Justice Bhat spoke on the topic 'Social Justice and Fiscal Policy'. He highlighted how taxation has always been central to political debates, using how the entire independence movement in America stemmed from taxation as an example."America got created because of this theory of taxation. The sterling cry of revolutionaries was 'no taxation without representation'. The demand for political representation stemmed out of taxation," he said.Likewise, one of the main causes of the French Revolution was extremely oppressive and arbitrary taxation, he said. Societies have traditionally risen up whenever there have been arbitrary taxes, he added..See full speech below.