The purpose of this Bill may be stated very briefly. It is to provide that a judge of the Supreme Court, Judge W. O'B. Fitzgerald, who was appointed to the Bench in October, 1966, will qualify for full pension, that is, one-half of salary, when he reaches the retiring age in 1978, notwithstanding that he will have only eleven years service on retiring age, as against the standard fifteen years' service required for full pension.
I wish to emphasise that the new provision applies only to the Supreme Court and only to one judge of that Court. The question of extending the new provision to the other serving judges of the Supreme Court does not arise, because their ages and lengths of service on the Bench are such that it would confer no benefit on them.
In view of the very special importance of the Supreme Court in our judicial system, it will, I feel sure, be widely accepted that the Government, in considering appointments to that Court, should have open to it the widest possible field of selection. It follows that a minor obstacle in the way of a particular appointment should be capable of being removed, so as to put outstanding Senior Counsel, as in this instance with no previous service on the Bench, in a position to accept an offer of appointment made to him by the Government. In the present instance, acceptance of appointment as Supreme Court judge involved the person concerned in a very substantial reduction in income, and the Government did not hesitate to accept the view that steps should be taken to enable him to qualify for full pension on reaching retiring age after eleven years' service instead of the usual fifteen years.
This proposed measure arises from the Government's consideration of an individual case in the Supreme Court. As I have mentioned already, the other Supreme Court judges are not involved.
