CESTAT Members' Retirement Age - Rolled Back?
LESS than a week ago, on 12.09.2012, reported that the retirement age of the President of CESTAT has been increased to 68 and that of the Members to 65. Now, we understand that this notification is being withdrawn.
DDT had raised certain doubts on the notification and hoped that, we would get answers soon, but now no answers; the notification itself is scrapped.
Law Commission's View: The Law Commission of India in its Report No. 232, in August 2009, observed, “enhanced age of retirement is prescribed in the higher echelons of the administrative and judicial services because the professional experience gained by those working in them needs to be fully tapped for the good of the society. It may be pointed out that the Government incurs a lot of expenditure on orientation-training of its employees, especially, at the senior level, and, therefore, their enriched professional experience in running the affairs of the government could be utilized for the good of the common man. In the present liberalized economic era, the experience gained by government employees after their retirement is being fruitfully tapped by many multinational companies. These private enterprises pay hefty salaries to the retired government employees because their valuable professional experience gained during their service in the government is put to profitable use. In such a scenario, the government should utilize the services of their retired employees to the fullest extent possible".
So, the Law Commission recommended that the "age of retirement of Chairpersons should be uniformly fixed at 70 years for all the Tribunals. Likewise, the age of retirement of Members of all the Tribunals should be fixed uniformly at 65 years".
Last month, the Solicitor General informed the Supreme Court that a new law was in the pipeline to have uniformity in the service conditions, including the retirement age, for these tribunals.
Recently the Kerala Government enhanced the retirement age of a single Member, by name, of the Sales Tax Appellate Tribunal.
And very recently, the Central Government withdrew a Bill, which sought to raise the retirement age of Members of the SEBI Tribunal.
And then came the notification from the Finance Ministry enhancing the retirement age of Members and President of the CESTAT and now it is mysteriously withdrawn!
Strange are the ways of the State!