8.-(1) Where any officer of the Supreme Court A.D. 1924. is absent from illness or other reasonable cause, he may, Appointwith the approval of the Lord Chancellor and subject to ment of the provisions of this section, appoint a deputy, and if deputies for 5 being so absent he fails to make such an appointment, Supreme the Lord Chancellor may appoint a deputy.

10

(2) Every deputy appointed under this section shall have all the powers and authorities of the officer for whom he is appointed to act.

(3) A person shall not be qualified to be appointed under this section to act as a deputy in any office unless he is qualified for appointment to that office.

Court

officers.

(4) Nothing in this section shall affect the power of the President of the Probate Division under section 15 thirty-five of the Court of Probate Act, 1858, to appoint any person to discharge the duties of any officer appointed under the Court of Probate Act, 1857 or the Court of 21 & 22 Probate Act, 1858, or be taken to authorise either the Vict. c. 95. Lord Chancellor or any officer so appointed as aforesaid 20 & 21 20 to appoint a deputy in any case to which the said section Vict. c. 77. thirty-five applies.

9.-(1) Directions under section twelve of the Amendment Supreme Court of Judicature (Officers) Act, 1879, as to as to business the business to be performed in, and the duties of the in, and 25 officers of, the central office of the Supreme Court shall, instead of being given by rules of court, be given by order of the Lord Chancellor.

(2) The clerks employed in the offices of the Supreme Court shall be classified in such manner as the Lord 30 Chancellor, with the concurrence of the Treasury, may by order direct, and shall be employed in such capacities, as the Lord Chancellor may by order direct.

(3) From and after the commencement of this Act, the power to appoint any person to be a clerk in the 35 office of the master in lunacy shall be vested in and exercisable by the Lord Chancellor, and that office shall be included among the offices of the Supreme Court.

(4) The central office of the Supreme Court shall comprise and shall be deemed always to have comprised 40 the officers and persons employed in the Court of Criminal Appeal.

officers of,

Supreme

Court.

42 & 43

Vict. c.

78.

A.D. 1924.

District

(5) For the purposes of this section, the expression "the offices of the Supreme Court" shall include the department of the official solicitor to the Supreme Court, the bankruptcy department and the companies (windingup) department, but shall not include the principal 5 probate registry.

10.—(1) Any person being the registrar of a county registrars of court or being a solicitor of not less than five years' High Court. standing shall be qualified for appointment as district registrar of the High Court.

(2) The Lord Chancellor may, if he thinks fit, appoint two persons to execute jointly the office of district registrar in any district registry, and may in any case where joint district registrars are appointed give directions with respect to the division between them 15 of the duties of the office and may, as he thinks fit, on the death, resignation or removal of a joint district registrar, either appoint another person to be joint district registrar in the place of the person so dying, resigning or removed, or give directions that the continuing 20 registrar shall act as sole registrar.

(3) On any vacancy occurring in the office of a district registrar, any person being a person qualified for appointment as district registrar may be appointed to act as provisional district registrar for such period 25 not exceeding six months from the date on which the vacancy occurs as the Lord Chancellor may direct.

(4) The power to make appointments to the office of district registrar and provisional district registrar shall be vested in the Lord Chancellor.

30

(5) All acts authorised or required to be done by, to or before a district registrar niay be done by, to or before a provisional district registrar appointed under this section, and a provisional district registrar shall receive in respect of the period during which he so acts remunera- 35 tion on a scale not higher than the scale applicable in the case of the registrar of the district for which he is appointed to act.

(6) Every district registrar and provisional district registrar shall be an officer of the Supreme Court, and no 40 person who is, or is acting as, the district registrar or the provisional district registrar of any district shall,

either by himself or his partner, be directly or indirectly A.D. 1924. engaged as a solicitor or agent for a party to any proceeding whatsoever in the registry of that district.

11.--(1) The President of the Probate Division Amendment 5 may, with the concurrence of the Lord Chancellor and the as to district. Treasury, by order determine the districts for which probate registries. district probate registries are to be established and the place at which the registry for any such district is to be established, and the districts and places as determined by 10 the order shall be in substitution for the districts and places respectively specified in Schedule A. to the Court 20 & 21 Viet. of Probate Act, 1857.

(2) This section shall come into operation on the passing of this Act.

c. 77.

15 12. (1) Rules of court may be made under the Rules of Judicature Acts, 1873 to 1910, for the following Supreme

20

25

30

35

40

purposes:

(a) For regulating and prescribing the procedure
(including the method of pleading) and the
practice to be followed in the Court of Appeal
and the High Court respectively in all causes
and matters whatsoever in or with respect to
which those courts respectively have for the
time being jurisdiction (including the procedure
and practice to be followed in the offices of the
Supreme Court and in district registries), and
any matters incidental to or relating to any
such procedure or practice, including (but
without prejudice to the generality of the fore-
going description) the manner in which, and the
time within which, any applications which under
this or any other Act are to be made to the
Court of Appeal or to the High Court shall be
made:

(b) For regulating and prescribing the procedure on
appeals from any court or person to the Court
of Appeal or the High Court, and the procedure
in connection with the transfer of proceedings
from any inferior court to the High Court or
from the High Court to any inferior court :
(c) For regulating the sittings of the Court of Appeal
and the High Court, and of the divisional courts
of the High Court, and of the judges of the

Court.

A.D. 1924.

21 & 22 Vict.

c. 3.

High Court whether sitting in court or in
chambers:

(d) For prescribing what part of the business to be
transacted and the jurisdiction to be exercised
by judges of the High Court in chambers may 5
be transacted or exercised by masters of the
Supreme Court, registrars of the Probate
Division, or other officers of the Supreme Court:
(e) For regulating any matters relating to the costs
of proceedings in the Court of Appeal or the 10
High Court:

(f) For regulating and prescribing the procedure
and practice to be followed in the Court of
Appeal or the High Court in cases in which the
procedure or practice is regulated by any enact- 15
ments in force at the commencement of this Act
(including so much of any of the Acts set out in
the Second Schedule to this Act as is specified in
the third column of that Schedule), and for
repealing any of those enactments so far as 20
they relate to matters with respect to which
rules may be made under this section:

(g) For regulating or making provision with respect
to any other matters which are regulated or with
respect to which provision is made by the rules 25
of the Supreme Court in force at the com-
mencement of this Act, or by any rules or
regulations so in force with respect to practice
and procedure in matrimonial causes or with
respect to applications and proceedings under 30
the Legitimacy Declaration Act, 1858.

(2) No rule of the Supreme Court which may involve any increase of expenditure out of public funds shall be made except with the concurrence of the Treasury, but the validity of any rule of the Supreme Court shall not in 35 any proceedings in any court be called in question either by the court or by any party to the proceedings on the ground only that it was a rule to which the concurrence of the Treasury was necessary and that the Treasury did not concur or are not expressed to have concurred in the 40 making thereof.

5

A.D. 1924.

(3) Section one of the Rules Publication Act, 1893 (which requires notice to be given of a proposal to make statutory rules) shall not apply to rules of the Supreme c. 66. Court.

56 & 57 Vict.

(4) All rules of court made before the commencement of this Act under enactments repealed by this Act, and all rules and regulations with respect to practice and procedure in matrimonial causes or with respect to applications and proceedings under the Legitimacy 10 Declaration Act, 1858, made before the commencement of this Act under section fifty-three of the Matrimonial 20 & 21 Vict. Causes Act, 1857, or under that section as applied by section four of the Legitimacy Declaration Act, 1858,. shall, notwithstanding the repeal of enactments effected 15 by this Act, continue in force and shall have effect as if made under this section.

c. 85.

c. 59.

(5) Nothing in this section shall affect the power conferred by section one hundred and thirty-two of the Bankruptcy Act, 1914, of making general rules for 4 & 5 Geo. 5. 20 carrying into effect the objects of that Act, or the power conferred on the President of the Probate Division by section thirty of the Court of Probate Act, 1857, as 20 & 21 Vict. applied by section eighteen of the Supreme Court of c. 77. Judicature Act, 1875, of making rules and orders with 25 respect to the practice and procedure in non-contentious probate business, and the power to make rules of court under this section shall not extend to the matters with respect to which rules or orders may be made by virtue of the enactments mentioned in this subsection.

30

35

40

38 & 39 Vict.

c. 77.

13.-(1) The following provisions shall have effect Trial with in relation to the trial of actions in a county court or any jury in other inferior court of civil jurisdiction :county courts and other inferior courts of

(a) In actions within the equity jurisdiction of the
court, and in actions in which the amount
claimed does not exceed five pounds, the trial
shall, unless otherwise ordered by the court or a
judge, be without a jury:

(b) Any action, not being an action to which para-
graph (a) of this section applies, in which there
is a claim in respect of libel, slander, malicious
prosecution, false imprisonment, seduction or

civil jurisdiction.

51 & 52 Vict.

c. 43.