Administration of Justice (Scotland) Act 1933

24 Appointment of officers of the Court of Session.

(1) Any enactment in force at the passing of this Act as to the number or appointment of the Clerks of Court shall cease to have effect and the Scottish Court Service shallappoint a Principal Clerk of Session and such other clerks and officers of the Court as it may . . . determine to be necessary to discharge the duties devolving, according to the law and practice existing immediately prior to the passing of this Act, on the whole staff of clerks in the Inner and Outer Houses and in the Bill Chamber and on the clerks to the judges, and such other clerks and officers shall, subject to the directions of the Lord President, be under the general supervision of the Principal Clerk of Session, and shall, subject as aforesaid, perform such duties in relation to the business of the Court as the Principal Clerk may require. (2) There shall be a Central Office of the Court which shall comprise the clerks and officers appointed in pursuance of this section and which shall be divided into a General Department and a Petition Department. Causes initiated in the Court by petition shall be assigned to the Petition Department and there shall be assigned to the General Department— (a) causes initiated by summons in the Court; (b) special cases; (c) causes brought before the Court by appeal, removal, remit, stated case or other like process; and (d) Exchequer causes. (3) The Petition Department and the General Department shall be respectively responsible under the supervision of the Principal Clerk and subject to the directions of the Lord President, for the allocation among the Divisions of the Inner House or the Lords Ordinary, as the case may be, of the causes assigned to the said departments in pursuance of the foregoing subsection, and the General Department shall be responsible for the division of the causes initiated by summons among— (a) the Ordinary Roll; (b) the Admiralty and Commercial Roll; and (c) the Consistorial Roll; in accordance with any Act of Sederunt made under section seventeen of this Act. (4) The clerks and officers appointed in pursuance of this section shall be assigned by the Principal Clerk, subject to the directions of the Lord President and the provisions of any Act of Sederunt, to one or other of the aforesaid departments, provided always that any clerk or officer in the Central Office shall be capable of performing, and shall perform, any duty in relation to the business of the Court as may be required by the Principal Clerk, subject to such directions and provisions as aforesaid. (5) Notwithstanding anything in the foregoing provisions of this section, it shall not be competent to allocate any Exchequer Cause to any Lord Ordinary other than the Lord Ordinary in Exchequer Causes. (6) Any provisions in an Act or an Act of Sederunt regarding the Principal Clerk of Session or the Clerks of Court shall apply to the Principal Clerk and to the clerks appointed in pursuance of this section in like manner as it applies to the Principal Clerk and to the clerks holding office at the passing of this Act, and any reference in any enactment to a depute, assistant or other clerk in the Court of Session or in the Bill Chamber, shall apply, in like manner as it applies to such depute, assistant or other clerk to the clerk required in pursuance of this section to perform the duties devolving on such depute, assistant or other clerk according to the law and practice existing immediately prior to the passing of this Act. (7) The right of appointing to the office of Macer, which in accordance with the law and practice existing immediately prior to the passing of this Act was vested in His Majesty, shall be transferred to and vested in the Scottish Court Service, . . ., and it shall be competent to the Scottish Court Service in pursuance of the power so vested in it to appoint the same persons to be Macers in the High Court of Justiciary and in the Court of Session.