Crown Proceedings Act 1947

20 Removal and transfer of proceedings.

(1) If in a case where proceedings are instituted against the Crown in a county court an application in that behalf is made by the Crown to the High Court, and there is produced to the court a certificate of the Attorney General to the effect that the proceedings may involve an important question of law, or may be decisive of other cases arising out of the same matter, or are for other reasons more fit to be tried in the High Court, the proceedings shall be removed into the High Court.

Where any proceedings have been removed into the High Court on the production of such a certificate as aforesaid, and it appears to the court by whom the proceedings are tried that the removal has occasioned additional expense to the person by whom the proceedings are brought, the court may take account of the additional expense so occasioned in exercising its powers in regard to the award of costs.

(2) Without prejudice to the rights of the Crown under the preceding provisions of this section, all rules of law and enactments relating to the removal or transfer of proceedings from a county court to" the High Court, or the transfer of proceedings from the High Court to a county court, shall apply in relation to proceedings against the Crown :

Provided that:—

(a) an order for the transfer to a county court of any proceedings against the Crown in the High Court shall not be made without the consent of the Crown ; and

(b) the duty of a judge to make an order under section forty-four of the [24 & 25 Geo. 5. c. 53.] County Courts Act, 1934, for the transfer to the High Court of proceedings commenced against the Crown in a county court shall not he conditional upon the giving of security by the Crown.