Courts (No. 2) Act, 1997

Precedence between judges of Supreme Court and High Court.

9.—The Courts of Justice Act, 1924 , is hereby amended by the substitution of the following section for section 9:

“9.—The precedence between judges shall be as follows:

(a) the Chief Justice shall rank first;

(b) the President of the High Court shall rank after the Chief Justice;

(c) then shall rank the judges of the Supreme Court who are former Chief Justices each according to priority of his or her appointment as Chief Justice;

(d) next shall rank the other judges of the Supreme Court, other than the ex-officio judges of that Court to whom paragraph (e) relates, each according to priority of his or her appointment as an ordinary judge of the Supreme Court;

(e) then shall rank the judges of the High Court who are ex-officio judges of the Supreme Court (being former Presidents of the High Court to whom section 7 (2) of the Courts (No. 2) Act, 1997, relates) each according to priority of his or her appointment as President of the High Court;

(f) next shall rank the other judges of the High Court, other than the ex-officio judges of that Court to whom paragraph (g) or (h) relates, each according to his or her priority of appointment as an ordinary judge of the High Court;

(g) then shall rank the President of the Circuit Court by virtue of being an additional judge of the High Court; and

(h) next shall rank the other judges of the Circuit Court who are ex-officio judges of the High Court (being former Presidents of the Circuit Court to whom section 7 (3) of the Courts (No. 2) Act, 1997, relates) each according to priority of his or her appointment as President of the Circuit Court.”.