Sri Lanka and India push to raise judges' retirement ages

The Sri Lankan government, led by President Anura Kumara Dissanayake, has approved a proposal to increase the mandatory retirement age for judges by two years, moving Supreme Court judges to retire at 67 and lower‑court judges to 62. Officials say the change will help address a backlog of about 1.1 million pending cases and a shortage of experienced judges after the post‑2022 economic crisis. The move faces unified opposition from the Bar Association of Sri Lanka, whose president Rajeev Amarasuriya called it a threat to judicial independence.

In India, a Supreme Court bench headed by Chief Justice Surya Kant ordered all state governments to reconsider raising the retirement age of judicial officers. The court rejected financial‑burden arguments, urging decisions within two weeks and suggesting that retaining experienced judges would reduce costs compared with filling vacancies. The directive follows a petition seeking a uniform increase of the retirement age for district judges from 60 to 62 years.