CLAUSE 242.—(Judges of the Federal Court and the High Courts.) (Hansard, 5 April 1935)

§ The SOLICITOR-GENERAL

I beg to move, in page 135, line 11, to leave out from "pension" to the end of the Clause, and to insert: which under the rules in force immediately before the commencement of Part III. of this Act was payable to or in respect of any person who, having been a judge of the High Court within the meaning of this Act or of the High Court at Rangoon, retired before the commencement of the said Part III. shall, notwithstanding anything in this Act, continue to be payable in accordance with those rules and shall be charged on the revenues of the Federation. (3) Any liability of the Federation or of any Province to or in respect of any person who is, at the commencement of Part III. of this Act, a judge of a High Court within the meaning of this Act, or to or in respect of any such person as is mentioned in subsection (2) of this section, being a liability of such a nature as to have been enforceable in legal proceedings against the Secretary of State in Council if this Act had not been passed, shall notwithstanding anything in this Act, be deemed, for the purposes of the provisions of Part VII. of this Act relating to legal proceedings, to be a liability arising under a statute passed before the commencement of Part of this Act. This is rather a formidable-looking Amendment, but it only carries out the intention of the Bill and, I am sure, of the Committee. A careful examination of the Bill has shown that the position is not quite clearly provided for. The first part of the Amendment deals with the pensions of retired judges, and makes it clear that they are chargeable on the revenues of the Federation. In the Bill as it is at Present drafted, the words which the Amendment proposes to leave out only relate to judges of the High Court of Rangoon. Special provision had to be made for them, because Burma is to be separated from India. It was thought that the judges of the other courts were already provided for, but we find that it is necessary, or at any rate desirable, to make the position clear. The latter part of the Amendment is the same point as that with which I dealt just now, and puts in fresh words to preserve any rights they might have which might be enforceable by legal proceedings.