A correspondent from Washington wrote in the Herald Tribune that, “Few people have the power to move markets like a federal chairman, except may be a retired federal chairman.” He was speaking of Alan Greenspan, retired chairman of the Federal Reserve.

Taking a cue from that quote, I would say that few people have the power to move the legal system along like a chief justice, except may be a group of retired chief justices. Let me explain how.

Ever since our Constitution was promulgated in 1950, the mandatory age of retirement of India’s chief justice remains fixed — regrettably — at 65 years. Consequently, since I shifted from Bombay to Delhi in May 1972 to practice in India’s Supreme Court, I have seen as many as twenty-four different persons occupying the highest judicial post. Some of them have come and gone as if through a revolving door — 18 days in the case of one CJI, 31 days in the case of another! A CJI must have a fixed tenure of sufficient duration to enable him (or her) not merely to try cases and write judgments, but to give new direction to our legal and judicial system. The “her” in parenthesis is to remind ourselves that we just missed by the sheer magic of seniority a distinguished lady-judge as head of our judiciary! The incumbent CJI still has three years before he reaches 65: Time, I hope, to get the legal system effectively functioning fast-forward, and to undertake much needed confidence-building measures to inspire renewed confidence in the entire higher judiciary.

... contd.