On Thursday, the Supreme Court rocked the legal boat by deciding to raise the retirement age of judicial officers in Madhya Pradesh from 60 to 61 years! This interim order was given by a powerful bench with Chief Justice B R Gavai and Justices Prasanna B Varale and K Vinod Chandran at the helm. The court reminded everyone of a similar wise decision made earlier by the Telangana High Court. The bench posed a blunt question: why should judicial officers in Madhya Pradesh be denied what others receive, especially when the state government is ready to give this relief? They said, "It is needless to say that judicial officers as well as other employees of the state government draw salaries from the same public exchequer." This means the money for salaries comes from the same pocket — so why should judges have fewer benefits? Interestingly, other state government employees enjoy retirement at 62 years, and the high court judges already retire at 62. So now Madhya Pradesh district court judges will retire at 61, creating just a one-year gap between high court and district judges. The court has kept the plea for a final decision after four weeks. However, not everyone was happy. Senior advocate Gopal Sankaranarayanan, representing the Madhya Pradesh High Court, opposed increasing the retirement age for district court judges. This drama began on October 27 when the top court asked the Madhya Pradesh government and the high court registry to respond to a petition challenging the refusal to raise the retirement age from 60 to 61 years. Going back to May 26, the same Chief Justice B R Gavai-headed bench had already said there is no legal barrier stopping the retirement age from being raised to 61 years for judicial officers in Madhya Pradesh. Now, with this interim order, things look promising for the deserving judicial officers who’ll get more time to serve! Stay tuned as the court finalizes its verdict soon.