Notwithstanding any other provision of this chapter, if the service of a judge, who has been elected or appointed as such, is discontinued by any means other than death, resignation, recall, impeachment, or retirement pursuant to this chapter, he or she shall have the right to elect in writing filed with the Judges’ Retirement System within 90 days thereafter, and without right of revocation, whether to allow his or her accumulated contributions to remain in the fund. A judge who after the effective date of the 1972 amendments to this section leaves his or her office to accept any lucrative office under the United States within the purview of Section 7 of Article VII of the California Constitution shall not be eligible for deferred retirement under this section. Failure to make the election shall be deemed an irrevocable election to withdraw his or her accumulated contributions. A judge who so elects to allow his or her accumulated contributions to remain in the fund shall, upon his or her application therefor to the Judges’ Retirement System be retired, and after attaining age 65 receive a retirement allowance based upon the judicial service with which he or she is credited, in the same manner as other judges, except that his or her retirement allowance is an annual amount equal to 5 percent of the compensation payable, at the time payments of the allowance fall due, to the judge holding the office that the retired judge last held prior to the discontinuance of his or her service as judge, multiplied by the number of years and fractions of years of service with which the retired judge is entitled to be credited at the time of such discontinuance of his or her service, not to exceed eight years.
This section does not apply to any person who becomes a judge after January 1, 1974.
The amendments to this section during 1977 are also applicable to persons who elected to allow their accumulated contributions to remain in the fund prior to January 1, 1978.