Committee of Supply 2023 debate, Day 2: Sylvia Lim on tenure of Supreme Court judges

In Parliament on Monday (Feb 27), Deputy Speaker Jessica Tan dealt with the expenditure estimates for the Judicature. Following that, MP Sylvia Lim said one of the fundamentals of the rule of law is that the Government and Parliament should be subject to being scrutinised and checked by an independent judiciary. She said one key measure of judicial independence is to ensure security of tenure for judges. She urged the Government to raise the age when tenure ends from 65 years to 70 years. Ms Lim said such an extension of security of tenure was preferable to the current practice of re-employing judges reaching 65 on short-term contracts. Secondly, there was a sense that when judges retire too early, this was a real loss to the nation. Ms Lim said to have judges re-employed beyond 65 on short-term contracts leaves room for speculation that a sitting judge may be influenced by the need for renewal at the end of his tenure at 65. She added that judges aged 65 should continue to enjoy security of tenure and retire for good at 70.