Social Security Act (Cap. 318), article 107

107. (1) For the purposes of this Act, the Minister may appoint one or more persons to serve as Umpires in cases that may be referred to them from time to time, sohowever that - (a) in all cases the person so appointed shall have held a warrant to practise the prof ession of advocate in Malta for at least seven years; and (b) the appointment shall be for a period of one year. (2) The Umpire shall, before entering upon his duties, take an oath of office before the Attorn ey General in the form approved by the Minister. (3) The Umpire shall have the power to take expert advice when necessary at his discretion, and to summon any person to appear before him to give evid ence on oath and/or to produce documents; and for these purposes he shall have the powers whic h are conferred by law on the First Hall of the Civil Court. Every summons shall be signed by him and shall be served either personally or by register ed post, and in the latter case , in proving service, it shall be sufficient to prove that the summo ns was properly addressed and posted. SOCIAL SECURITY [CAP. 318. 109 (4) The Director shall be entitled to appear and be heard on any appeal or referen ce to the Umpire. Cap. 12. (5) The Umpire shall abstain fr om taking cognizance of a case or may be challenged in any of the circumstances in which a jud ge would abstain or can be challenged in accordance with the provisions of article 734 of the Code of Organization and Civil Procedure and in every such case the provisions of Sub-Title II of Title II of Book Third of that C ode shall apply so far as appli cable. (6) The Minister may, from time to time, as he shall deem fit and as provided in sub-article (1), vary the composition of the panel referred to in that sub-article, but a person actually serving as Umpire shall, notwithstanding the removal of his name from the panel, continue so to serve in the proceedings in which he is serving as Umpire until the con clusion of those proceedings and for the purpose of the inter pretation of any dec ision given therein . Appeal to the Umpire. Amended by: XVI. 1989.20. Re-numbered by: XXIV . 1993.2. Amended by: XXIV . 1993.14; XXV . 1994.2,30; II. 2004.31; L.N. 218 of 2012; XXXIX. 2015.11; XVI. 2017.37; XIII.2024.25