As Attorney-General Simon Corbell published the legal instrument empowering the commission yesterday morning, the man at the centre of the controversy was in Canberra Hospital recovering from surgery.

Mr Cahill, who was stood down from his post on Tuesday pending the result of the commission, underwent an operation late that night for a foot injury he sustained in an accident on Tuesday morning.

He was discharged from Canberra Hospital yesterday.

The legal document empowering the commission the first of its kind in the ACT is a notifiable instrument and outlines the complaint against Mr Cahill.

''On or about 21 October 2009, Chief Magistrate R.J.Cahill caused or procured the creation of written material to Special Magistrate Peter Lauritsen which had, or might have had, the effect of interfering with the conduct of criminal proceedings to be heard by his Honour relating to a public figure known professionally and socially to the Chief Magistrate before proceedings commenced,'' the instrument reads.

The case referred to in the complaint is covered by court-imposed non-publication orders and details cannot be printed. The complaint was made to Mr Corbell on October 23 by Mr Cahill's fellow magistrates, John Burns and Karen Fryar.

The Judicial Commission, made up of three retired interstate Supreme Court judges, justices James Wood and Jerrold Cripps, both of NSW, and Justice Ted Mulligan, of South Australia, will decide if Mr Cahill's alleged conduct constituted misbehaviour.

Mr Cahill, who is due to retire when he turns 65 on December 15, is also the subject of a separate investigation by ACT Policing detectives who are pursuing inquiries into whether the alleged supply of the material was a breach of the territory's criminal code.

Mr Cahill's barrister, John Purnell, SC, who issued a statement on behalf of his client in response to Mr Corbell's announcement on Tuesday, declined to comment yesterday.

The Tuesday statement said that Mr Cahill was looking forward to being exonerated by the commission.