Supreme Court Act 1981

92 Tenure of office

(1) Subject to the following provisions of this section, a

person who holds an office to which this subsection applies shall vacate it at the end of the completed year of service in the course of which he attains the age of seventy-two years.

(2) Subsection (1) applies to any office listed in column 1 of Part I or II of Schedule 2; and for the purposes of that subsection a person who has successively held two or more offices so listed shall be treated as completing a year of service on the anniversary of his appointment to the first of them.

(3) Where the Lord Chancellor considers it desirable in the public interest to retain in office a person who holds an office to which subsection (1) applies after the time when he would otherwise retire in accordance with that subsection, the Lord Chancellor may from time to time authorise the continuance in office of that person until such date, not being later than the date on which that person attains the age of seventy-five years, as he thinks fit.

(4) A person appointed to an office to which subsection (1) applies shall hold that office during good behaviour.

(5) The power to remove such a person from his office on account of misbehaviour shall be exercisable by the Lord Chancellor.

(6) The Lord Chancellor may also remove such a person from his office on account of inability to perform the duties of his office.

(7) A person appointed to an office listed in column 1 of Part III of Schedule 2 shall hold that office during Her Majesty's pleasure.