R H REDDI Vs. HIGH COURT OF KARNATAKA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) These appeals are by three former Judicial Officers who had retired on attaining the age of superannuation i.e., on completing the age of 58 years, but who were not happy with and had questioned the orders of retiring them compulsorily at the age of 58, by filing writ petitions before this Court, mainly on the ground that they are entitled to continue in service till they attain the age of 60 years. It was the stand of the appellants that in terms of Rule 95-A of the Karnataka Civil Services Rules (for short, the Rules), the age of retirement of Judicial Officers shall be raised to 60 years subject to the following conditions viz.,

(2.) Not only based on this rule, but on the basis of the judgments of the Supreme Court, in a series of cases starting from 1) ALL INDIA JUDGES ASSOCIATION vs. UNION OF INDIA, 1992 1 SCC 119 2) ALL INDIA JUDGES ASSOCIATION vs. UNION OF INDIA, 1993 4 SCC 288

(3.) Such contentions have been canvassed before a Learned Single Judge, particularly to claim that the retirement as enshrined in Rule 95-A of the Act as a condition precedent to extend the retirement age from 58 years to 60 years, had virtually lost any significance and had become redundant in the wake of the observations made by the Supreme Court in the third Judges' case as contained in para-26, reading as under: