Vacancy in office of or absence of Chief Judge
16 Vacancy in office of or absence of Chief Judge
Where there is a vacancy in the office of Chief Judge, or the Chief Judge is absent from duty, the senior of the other Judges willing to act as Chief Judge shall, if there is no Acting Chief Judge appointed under section 17, act as Chief Judge, and shall, while so acting, have the powers and authorities and fulfil the duties of the Chief Judge.
For the purposes only of subsection (1)—
the Judges shall have seniority between themselves according to the dates of their commissions as Judges under this Act or the District Courts Act 1912, a Judge whose commission is dated earlier than that of another Judge being senior to that other Judge, and
if the commissions of two or more Judges bear the same date, those Judges shall have seniority between themselves according to the seniority assigned to them by their commission or, failing any such assignment, according to the order of their being sworn.
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