ADMINISTRATION OF JUSTICE IN INDIA BY ROMESH DUTT, C.I.E. (Lecturer in Indian History at University College, London, WHEN the East India Company was appointed Diwan, or revenue administrator, for Bengal, Behar, and Orissa, in 1765, the administration of law and justice was still left in the hands of the Nawab of Bengal, and the important duty was miserably performed. Zemindars, however, still continued to maintain peace and order within their estates, and exercised the necessary police and judicial functions. SUPREME COURT AND THE JUDICIAL SYSTEM OF HASTINGS The Regulating Act of 1773 created the Supreme Court of Calcutta; and Warren Hastings, who became Governor-General of India in 1774, organised a new system for the administration of justice in the interior of Bengal. He took away all judicial and police powers from local zemindars and low-paid fouzdars; he established a civil court and a criminal court in each district; and he appointed the district collector of revenues to preside at these courts, assisted by Hindu and Musalman officials. He drew up a code of regulations for the guidance of these district officers called Collectors; and he established two courts of appeal in Calcutta-the Sadr Diwani Adalat for civil cases, and the Sadr Nizamat Adalat for criminal cases. THE JUDICIAL SYSTEM OF LORD CORNWALLIS Lord Cornwallis, who succeeded Warren Hastings as Governor-General of India, effected many important reforms. He relieved the Collector of his judicial duties; he appointed Magistrates and Judges to try criminal and civil cases; and he appointed four provincial appellate courts between the District courts and the Sadr courts established by Hastings. In this way Lord Cornwallis really laid the foundations of the system of judicial administration which still prevails in India. In some respects his system has been since modified, and modified not for the better. The provincial appellate courts exist no longer; and the functions of the Magistrate and the Collector have been vested in the same officers, for the sake of convenience or cheapness, but to the dissatisfaction and harassment of the people. It was also from the time of Lord Cornwallis that formal and definitive legislative enactments began in the series of laws known as the Bengal, Madras, and Bombay Regulations. Both Hastings and Cornwallis made one fatal mistake; they reposed no trust in the people, they gave them no real share in the judicial administration, they vested all real power in European officers. The plan could not succeed, and did not succeed. Crimes multiplied in Bengal, robbery occurred everywhere, and life and property were unsafe. The vast powers given to two European Superintendents of police to arrest men on suspicion deepened the evil. In one district in Bengal 2071 persons were arrested on suspicion between May 1808 and May 1809, and remained in jail for two years without a trial. Many died in prison. MUNRO'S JUDICIAL SYSTEM IN MADRAS The idea then dawned on the ablest servants of the Company that in a civilised and populous country justice could not be dispensed to the people except through the people themselves, The man who first carried this idea into execution, generously and boldly, was Sir Thomas Munro, whose name is still cherished with affection in Madras. His Regulations for the Madras territories, which were passed in 1816, extended the powers and jurisdictions of Native Indian Judges, and transferred to them the principal share in the administration of civil justice. The improvement of the people, said Sir Thomas Munro in a letter to the famous George Canning in 1820, "must be very slow, but it will be in proportion to the degree of confidence we repose in them, and to the share which we give them in the administration of public affairs. All that we can give them, without endangering our own ascendency, should be given. All real military power must be kept in our own hands; but they ought, with advantage hereafter, to be made eligible to every civil office under that of a member of the Government." One retrograde step, however, was taken by Munro in Madras, and subsequently by Elphinstone in Bombay. The functions of the Collector and Magistrate, separated by Lord Cornwallis, were united. ELPHINSTONE'S JUDICIAL SYSTEM IN BOMBAY Mountstuart Elphinstone was Governor of Bombay from 1819 to 1827, and he did for Bombay what Sir Thomas Munro had done for Madras. He tried to maintain the old village organisation of the Bombay Presidency under the Patel or headman, and he extended the powers of Native Indian Judges in respect of civil causes. In his famous minute, written in 1824, he recorded his hope and belief that the natives of India" might bear to the English nearly the relation which the Chinese do to the Tartars, the Europeans retaining the government and the military power, while the natives filled a large portion of the civil stations and many of the subordinate employments in the army." The first great attempt made towards codification of laws was made by Elphinstone. His endeavour to compile a digest of the customs and usages of the people did not succeed; but his systematic arrangement of the laws of the Bombay Council, codified in twenty-seven Regulations, and subdivided into chapters and sections, is the first work of its kind in India under British rule. BENTINCK'S JUDICIAL SYSTEM IN BENGAL Lord William Bentinck, who was Governor-General of India from 1828 to 1835, introduced the necessary reforins in Bengal. The appointment of low-paid Native Indian officers, called Munsifs or Ameens, for the disposal of civil cases, was an element of Lord Cornwallis's scheme of 1793; but men of no character for probity or respectability had been appointed to such posts on miserable commissions, and gave no satisfaction. Lord Hastings had somewhat improved the pay of Munsifs and Sadr Amcens; but it was Lord William Bentinck who gave them that share of work and responsibility which was necessary in the interests of good administration. The powers and emoluments of the Native Indian Judges were fixed by him upon a comprehensive and liberal scale, and they were invested with the almost entire charge of the administration of civil justice. The admission of the people of India to a proper share of administrative work has generally evoked opposition from European residents in India; and Lord William Bentinck's action was attacked with a degree of bitterness seldom equalled and never exceeded in India. A statesman who works with a single-hearted desire to serve the interests of the people has to reckon on hostility from privileged classes. RENEWAL OF CHARTER, 1833 Other important events happened during the administration of Lord William Bentinck. The Company's Charter expired in 1833, and on the occasion of the renewal of the Charter, the right of the people of India to hold all "place, office, or employment," was explicitly declared. The North-Western Provinces were formed into a separate government, in addition to those of Bengal, Madras, and Bombay. The GovernorGeneral's Council was empowered to pass Acts applicable to the whole of India. A new legal member was added to the Council, and Lord Macaulay went out as the first legal member. The old Regulations stop with 1834; since then we have Acts of the GovernorGeneral's Council and also Acts of the Provincial Councils. RENEWAL OF CHARTER, 1853 The Company's Charter was once more renewed in 1853; and on this occasion Bengal was placed under the separate administration of a Lieutenant-Governor ; provision was made to amalgamate the old Supreme Courts and Sadr Courts into High Courts in the Presidency towns; and the Civil Service of India was opened to public competition. HIGH COURTS The High Courts of Calcutta, Madras, Bombay, and Allahabad, and the Chief Court of Lahore, exercise |