PAPUA AND NEW GUINEA (VALIDATION OF
APPOINTMENTS).
No.
86 of 1953.
An Act to remove Doubts as to the Validity
of the Appointments of the Chief Judge and other Judges of the Supreme Court of
the Territory of Papua and New Guinea and of certain Officers of the Public Service of that
Territory.
[Assented to 11th. December, 1953.]
Preamble.
WHEREAS
by sub-section (1.) of section fifty-nine of the Papua and New Guinea Act 1949-1950 it is provided, among other
things, that the Chief Judge and each other judge of the Supreme Court of the
Territory of Papua and New Guinea shall be appointed by the Governor-General by
Commission under the Seal of the Commonwealth and may be removed from office by
the Governor-General on the ground of proved misbehaviour or incapacity, but
shall not otherwise be removed from office:
And Whereas it is further provided by sub-section (1.) of that
section that the Chief Judge and each other judge of that Court, except in the
case of an acting judge, shall, subject to that section, retire upon reaching
the age of sixty-five years:
And Whereas, in pursuance of those provisions as in force as
provisions of the Papua and New Guinea
Act 1949, the Governor-General, by Commission dated the twenty-ninth day of
June, One thousand nine hundred and forty-nine, appointed Frederick Beaumont
Phillips, Esquire, C.B.E., to be Chief Judge of the Supreme Court of the
Territory of Papua and New Guinea, and by Commissions dated the twenty-ninth
day of June, One thousand nine hundred and forty-nine, the fifteenth day of
September, One thousand nine hundred and forty-nine, and the thirtieth day of
November, One thousand nine hundred and forty-nine, respectively, appointed
Ralph Thomas Gore, Esquire, Esme Baron Bignold, Esquire, and Andrew Kelly,
Esquire, to be judges of that Court:
And Whereas, by reason of the inclusion of the words “to have,
hold, exercise and enjoy the said office during the pleasure of the
Governor-General” in each of those Commissions, doubts have arisen as to the
validity of the appointments:
And Whereas, in connexion with certain appointments of officers
to the Public Service of the Territory of Papua and New Guinea that purported
to be made by the Minister of State for Territories,
doubts
have arisen whether there was in force a delegation by the Governor-General by
virtue of which that Minister was empowered to make those appointments:
Be it
therefore enacted by the Queen’s Most Excellent Majesty, the Senate, and the
House of Representatives of the Commonwealth of Australia, as follows:—
Short
title.
1. This Act may be cited as the Papua and New Guinea (Validation of Appointments) Act 1953.
Commencement.
2.This Act shall come into operation on the day on which
it receives the Royal Assent.
Validation
of Judges’ appointments.
3.The appointments referred to in the preamble to this
Act of Frederick Beaumont Phillips, Esquire, C.B.E., as Chief Judge of the
Supreme Court of the Territory of Papua and New Guinea and of Ralph Thomas
Gore, Esquire, Esme Baron Bignold, Esquire, and Andrew Kelly, Esquire, as
judges of that Court, shall be deemed to be, and at all times to have been, as
valid and effectual as if the words “to have, hold, exercise and enjoy the said
office during the pleasure of the Governor-General” had not been included in
the respective Commissions by which those appointments were made.
Issue
of fresh Commissions by Governor-General.
4.—(1.) Notwithstanding the validity, by force of
this Act or otherwise, of the appointments to which the last preceding section
applies, the Governor-General may, by Commission under the Seal of the
Commonwealth—
(a)re-appoint Frederick Beaumont Phillips, Esquire, G.B.E., as Chief Judge of
the Supreme Court of the Territory of Papua and New Guinea; and
(b)re-appoint Ralph Thomas Gore, Esquire, C.B.E., Esme Baron Bignold, Esquire,
and Andrew Kelly, Esquire, as judges of that Court.
(2.) Upon the
re-appointment as judges, in pursuance of the last preceding sub-section, of
the persons mentioned in paragraph (b)of that sub-section, those judges
shall, notwithstanding the provisions of sub-section (5.) of section
fifty-eight of the Papua and New Guinea
Act 1949-1950, have seniority according to the dates of their respective
Commissions of appointment referred to in the preamble to this Act.
(3.) Subject to
the next succeeding sub-section, a person re-appointed in pursuance of this
section shall be deemed to hold office as Chief Judge or judge, as the case may
be, by virtue of that re-appointment as if it were an appointment under section
fifty-nine of the Papua and New Guinea
Act