Section 20: Leave for Service in Other Institutions

(1)Where a judicial officer or a person in the Judiciary Service—

(2)Subject to subsection (3), the Judicial Service Commission may grant to an applicant under subsection (1), the leave applied for in each case for a period not exceeding three years.

(3)A judicial officer or a person in the Judiciary who is appointed to an institution outside the Judiciary for a period exceeding three years may, in consultation with the Judicial Service Commission, retire from the Judiciary.

(4)The period of three years prescribed in subsection (2) does not apply to a judicial officer who is appointed to an institution outside the Judiciary—

(5)A judicial officer appointed to an institution outside the Judiciary in accordance with subsection (4) is entitled to leave of absence without pay for the duration of the period for which the judicial officer is appointed.

(6)The period of absence granted to the judicial officer or a person in respect of service under subsection (1)(a) shall not be counted as part of the officer’s period of service for purposes of computing the one-off lumpsum retirement benefit under paragraph 2 of Schedules 2, 4, 5 and 6 of this Act.

(7)Where a Justice of the Supreme Court, Justice of the Court of Appeal or a Judge of the High Court is granted leave of absence without pay in accordance with this section, the President may, acting on the advice of the Judicial Service Commission, appoint, in accordance with Article 142 of the Constitution, an acting Justice of the Supreme Court, Justice of the Court of Appeal or Judge of the High Court as the case maybe, to act in place of the judicial officer but the person appointed shall not be entitled to retirement benefits which are granted under this Act.

(8)This section does not apply to a judicial officer or a person in the Judiciary Service who is assigned to perform a specific task in addition to his or her routine duty for a period not exceeding two years.