I move:—
"That the Seanad hereby approves of the alterations in the Rules of Court (Orders VII and XV) made by the Minister for Justice on the 14th day of April, 1927 under Section 36 of the Courts of Justice Act, 1924."
It is within the recollection of members of the House that where a Rule of the High Court, or any of our courts is altered, the alteration, like the original Rule, has to receive the approval of both Houses. Since the High Court Rules were approved by this House one of them has been found not to work beneficially. It is a Rule which requires that the summary summons, that is an instrument which takes the place of the old writ in the High Courts of Justice, be verified by affidavit before it can be issued and served. Very often it seems necessary that you should issue this originating summons very quickly, because the defendant may get out of the country and you want to catch him before he goes. Therefore, it is frequently quite, impossible to have ready your affidavit which must be made by the plaintiff, who may be out of the country. It has been found quite impossible to carry out the present Rule without inflicting a good deal of injustice and delay. What the alteration does is this, it abolishes that necessity for affidavit before a writ is issued and served and then it provides for the making of an affidavit before you can get judgment in the matter of the writ whether the defendant fails to appear or puts in no defence.