Indian Legal History-Settlement Act, 1781

Background


Regulating Act of 1773 introduced some reforms. Charter of 1774 introduced Supreme Court in India.

However, jurisdiction of court was not demarcated properly. Neither their was clear separation of power between judiciary and governor and council.

More often than not, judiciary and executive behaved like typical husband wife, fighting over jurisdiction, fighting over interpretation of of regulating act, fighting over control over company's official etc. In Patna Case, supreme court went further and gave order against law officer of company.

Check out this cases here.

To solve these existing issues, House of commons (Lok Sabha equivalent in England) appointed a select committe know as Touchet Committee to brainstorm on issues in Bengal, Bihar and Orissa.

On the submission of Touchet Committee, Brtitish parliament passed Act of Settlement, 1781.

Objective

Below are objectives stated in preamble
  1. To remove doubts in Regulating Act which were causing conflict between Judiciary and Executives.
  2. To support Government of Bengal, Bihar and Orissa so that revenue collection goes smoothly
  3. To maintain and protect the inhabitants, their customs and their culture. (Really ???)

Important Provision

Below are some of the important provision of settlement act

Protection of native customs-Act provided that native customs and laws must be applied when dispute is between natives. It stated that personal laws should be applied to matters related to succession and inheritance etc.

Restriction over supreme court-Act stated that supreme court had no jurisdiction over matter of revenue, it's collection or any order relating to revenue collection

Relief to Patna Case victims- In Patna case, supreme court came down heavily on law officers (Mufti and Kazi). Those arrested in this case were released

No authority over executives -Act stated that Supreme court will not exercise any authority over Governor and his council

Legal Sanction to company's court- Company had Mofussil court in district court and Sadar Diwani Adalat as higher court. This settlement act provided that appeals from Sadar diwani Adalat wold lie to privy council. Hence it gave legal recognition to Company's court. Matter of above 5000 pounds could be appealed in privy council

Other Provision
  • Zamindar and revenue farmer (Who used to collect revenue for company were exempted from Supreme Court's jurisdiction
  • Clarity provided as to who all are subject to crown, company.
  • It was stated that Supreme court cannot issue write beyond presidency town

Conclusion

Act provided that personal laws of natives to be applied in case of inheritance and succession. This was good provision as natives were not much acquainted with laws in England.

The clarity provided over jurisdiction of Supreme court was good, for reason such clarification reduced conflicts between Court and Governor-in-council.

However, this was also setback for judiciary. Most of the power were given to Governor. Jurisdiction of Supreme court was reduced to Calcutta as well as related to subject matter (As inheritance, succession and company officials dispute were excluded).

All in all, it introduced very few changes. (And we think it's done all for Money for Britain and none for betterment of administration. What do you think ?)

Thanks,

Comments

Post a Comment

Followers

Popular posts from this blog

Privileges and Immunities to Administration in Suits

Introduction You know government can enter into contracts. Government can start some business. It mean government can sue other people, or you can sue the government. Before you initiate a legal proceedings against government, or even after legal proceedings are initiated, there are some relaxations to government.( OK, we will use Government/Administration as per our discretion interchangeably in this post, but they will mean the same ). So, it might happen that to prove something you may need a document or evidence, but government may be given exemption to produce evidence in that regard. Let's take one example.  General law is that burden of proof is on prosecution. Meaning, the one who accuses other  needs to prove the crime/offence by other. But when government accuses you of Sedition, you have to prove your innocence, burden of proof is on YOU. This is scary, as many times government in power just accuses people of sedition who opposes their ideas/policies, and put opponents i
Read more

Legal History-Administration of Justice in Bombay (1668-1726)

Image
Story About Bombay In 1534, Portuguese acquired Bombay from Local Hindu Raja. Then Bombay was given to King Charles II as dowry in his sister's marriage to in 1661. In 1668 Bombay was given to rent to East India Company for a rent of 10  £ . By today's exchange it would be around 100 Rs. So  yes, Bombay was given on rent to East India Company for the price of 10 Vada-Pav. Administration of Bombay was subordinate to Surat back then. After renting it, company issued a charter in 1668 granting company some rights to make laws to deal with Bombay. Like Administration in Madras, development of Earlier administration could be studied in 3 stages. First Stage: 1670-1683 (Aungier Eara) During this period Bombay was subordinated to Surat. The Governor of Surat was ex-officio Governor of Bombay, though Bombay had Deputy Governor and Council. Gerald Aungier brought some changes in Administration of justice. Two plans, i.e plan of 1670 and plan of 1672 made progress in sou
Read more

Civil Procedure Code - Summoning and attendance of Witness (Order 16)

Image
There are tons of stages after plaint/WS is submitted and final judgment is given. Below are certain stages. In this blog We will deal with Order 16 i.e Summoning and attendance of witness. Order 16 have 21 rules. These rules mainly deals with How to summon the witness ? Who can summon the witness ? What if witness do not appear after summons ? How Summons are to be served ? Who will bear the cost when witness appears? All in all, it deals with below things: Now party can give a list of witness to court to be summoned or court can sometime on it's own accord order the attendance of witness or production of documents from Witness as per Rule 14 of Order 21. General Procedure When Court summon on the request of parties, procedure is something like First party will submit the list of witness to court withing 15 days of settlement of issues. Court will issue summons based on list. Witness can attend without summons also as per Rule 1A Court issues the
Read more