(a) “Judges' Retirement System” means the Tennessee Judges' Retirement System, constituted by the provisions of chapter 3 of title 17 of this Code.

(b) “Judge” means any person in office as a judge of a court of record in this state whose salary for his judicial position has been paid during the period of his service wholly from the treasury of the state and includes the executive secretary to the Supreme Court.

(c) “Service” means service as a judge, which shall also include the following: (1) Time while on leave of absence during the term of judicial office; (2) service rendered by a judge in the armed forces or in any department of the government of the United States during the existence of a state of war or a period of national emergency which interrupts his term of office; (3) time served as attorney-general or assistant attorney-general, or district attorney-general or assistant district attorney-general, all of which are referred to in this chapter as attorney-general; and (4) time served as a member of the general assembly, subject to a maximum of eight (8) years' credit for service in the general assembly and subject to the further provision that the judge has paid into the judges' retirement system three per cent (3%) of the compensation he received as a member of the general assembly during such years of service, plus interest at the rate of three percent (3%) per year prior to December 30, 1970. Service shall be rounded to the nearest number of years based on full calendar months of service; and (5) services rendered as a sessions judge within the state of Tennessee.

(d) “Normal Retirement Age” means sixty-five (65) for a judge whose length of service is less than eight (8) years and fifty-four (54) for a judge whose length of service is eight (8) or more years.

(e) “Benefit Base” means a sum equal to the annual salary the retired judge would receive if he continued in the office from which he retired.

(f) “Normal Retirement Benefit” means a sum equal to seventy-five per cent (75%) of a judge's benefit base if he has completed at least twenty (20) years of service. Otherwise, the normal retirement benefit shall be three and seventy-five hundredths per cent (3.75%) of his benefit base multiplied by the number of years service if he has had twenty (20) years or less of service. A normal retirement benefit shall not exceed seventy-five per cent (75%) of the benefit base.

(g) “Late Retirement” means retirement after a judge passes his seventieth (70th) birthday and shall apply only to a judge who becomes a member of this system after this chapter is adopted. On late retirement such a judge shall forfeit for himself and all others who may become entitled to benefits because of his service fifty per cent (50%) of such benefits.