The county probation officers in the counties of this State now or hereafter having within their territorial limits a population of over eighty-three thousand, who have served as such county probation officers for a continuous period of twenty years and have reached the age of sixty years shall, upon application in writing to the assignment judge of the Superior Court of their respective counties, be retired upon one-half pay.
Amended 1953,c.41,s.2; 1991,c.91,s.414.