SECTION 160

Procedure when judge or chancellor incompetent to try, hear or render judgment in case.

If in any case, civil or criminal, pending in any circuit court, chancery court, or in any court of general jurisdiction having any part of the jurisdiction of a circuit and a chancery court, or either of them in this state, the presiding judge or chancellor shall, for any legal cause, be incompetent to try, hear, or render judgment in such case, the parties, or their attorneys of record, if it be a civil case, or the solicitor or prosecuting officer, and the defendant or defendants, if it be a criminal case, may agree upon some disinterested person practicing in the court and learned in the law, to act as a special judge or chancellor to sit as a court, and to hear, decide, and render judgment in the same manner and to the same effect as such incompetent chancellor or judge could have rendered but for such incompetency. If the case be a civil one, and the parties or their attorneys of record do not agree; or if it be a criminal one, and the prosecuting officer and the defendant or defendants do not agree upon a special judge or chancellor, or if either party in a civil cause is not represented in court, the register in chancery or the clerk of such circuit or other court in which said cause is pending, shall appoint a special judge or chancellor, who shall preside, try, and render judgment as in this section provided. The legislature may prescribe other methods for supplying special judges in such cases.